Letters

LETTERS Brighton Beach To the Editor: Many thanks for your encouraging article (Jan/Feb 1980) on Russian re-settlement in America. I would like to add a word about the American-Jewish encounter...

...Thank you again for the article...
...There have been few such all-out efforts on the part of our organizations and nearly none on the part of our religious institutions to deal with this...
...This "unthinkable" thought may well stir up a storm of controversy...
...All of us knew that in Harry Bluestone we would find a creative mind, a willing hand, and a Jewish heart...
...So let's hear what your readers think of an idea that would pressure the anti-Zionist to come out from behind his fig-leaf and reveal himself as the anti-Semite...
...In the past, women have married with the understanding that their status in life depended a great deal onvtheir husband's achievements...
...On the contrary, we have been quick to criticize the newcomers for non-participation without realizing the depth of their lack of knowledge about us and feeling for us...
...My present position is Vice President, Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation (the national coordinating body of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, the Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot, etc...
...I feel that the values we have developed as children and grandchildren of immigrants in the United States play a role in our reluctance to come to grips with the "dropout" problem...
...However, the author of this article states categorically, "The private schools are better than the public schools and they have fewer Blacks and Puerto Ricans...
...Elaine B. Kahn, for G.R.O.W...
...So, were we to lay the term "Zionism" to rest, then to the consternation of the Commissars, Ayatollahs, assorted anti-Semites and P.L.O.'ers would it not rebound to the best interests of the Jews of Israel and the diaspora...
...As women are gaining financial security, self-fulfillment, and status from our own professional accomplishments, we are seeking relationships with men, not as providers, but as equals...
...But it also forces a confrontation between our well-rooted democratic ideals and our equally important desire to cooperate in strengthening Israel's future...
...Each school has a special program to aid their non-English speaking students to move as rapidly as possible into the mainstream of American life...
...As little boys and later as adults, men are discouraged from expressing a wide variety of feelings, including sensitivity and tenderness...
...We are a broadbased group of Conservative rabbis, students, faculty, professionals and lay-people who have joined together to work for the immediate admission of women to the rabbinical school of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.' It is widely recognized that this is a necessary step for the movement to take...
...I so much identified with "Fran" who will be 33 in 1980...
...I served as Executive Director and Educational Director at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism from 1975-1977...
...Suggested organizational movements such as Americans for Aliyah, American Friends of Israel, Israel Forever Unlimited, etc., could well serve as substitutes for the outmoded Zionism which is bedevilling us from every anti-Semitic source...
...Many of my friends would agree with the premises in the article...
...What is remarkable about this final act is how rarely this kind of generosity has occurred here...
...Harry Bluestone was for almost twenty years the Executive Director of our Jewish Community Center (YM-YWHA...
...These children are doing very well in school and are indeed "making it...
...Since a high percentage of Jewish men achieve remarkably successful careers, this imbalance is of special concern to the Jewish community...
...We hope to dispel through education any mistaken notions people may have as to what the admission of women both presupposes and implies...
...Although a modest-salaried Jewish professional during his lifetime, Harry in his Last Will and Testament included sizable gifts to many Jewish institutions in our community...
...Maybe cloning is the answer...
...While he was Director and then later as a retiree he willingly devoted his time and talents to the many other Jewish organizations in our community...
...In addition, some studies indicate that there may be an inverse correlation between the intensity of interpersonal relationships and success in the business/professional worlds...
...To deal with the latter part of this statement, may I note that to the best of my knowledge none of the Jewish Day Schools have any Blacks and Puerto Ricans and thus her statement is highly misleading...
...Now, thanks to the Russian refugees, Brighton Beach is being reclaimed, and I thank them and wish them well as they take the uncertain steps my grandparents took when they, too, left Russia for the "promised land...
...Acquiescing to the Jewish Agency's point of view condemns us to pessimism about our ability to create amongst ourselves and our new immigrants a thriving American Jewish future...
...Indeed, many of these youngsters come to us after finding the Jewish Day School experience unsatisfactory...
...We are proud in this District of what we have done to meet the needs of all youngsters including the new Americans from the Soviet Union...
...We are establishing a speaker's bureau and resource center and these speakers and materials will be available to individuals and organizations upon request...
...boardwalk yentas and street wise kids who watched the hordes descend from the elevated on hot summer days to sample some of the fresh air we took for granted...
...My fiance is five years younger than I am...
...Had the author visited any of these schools, I think her statements as written might have been greatly modified...
...The emotional responsiveness that women develop at an early age is not a part of the typical male experience...
...Men seem to be unwilling or unable to develop these same emotional intimacies...
...a position for which he received during all that period a very modest salary...
...In addition, we are working for the greater education of the laity in all matters of Conservative practice and ideology, with special attention to the issues surrounding the ordination of women...
...I did not know whether to cry myself to sleep or to sigh with relief because it is not "only me...
...We would welcome any visits by staff members from moment or Ms...
...It is very difficult, particularly here in the wide open spaces of the Pacific Northwest, to describe the particular ambiance of the Brighton Beach where I grew up, the crazy environment of sea and sand...
...Thank you very much...
...Robin Moss Regin Rosenberg Kansas City, Missouri To the Editor: I want to take this opportunity to thank you for printing William Novak's article on the "Vanishing Jewish Male...
...Laura Smith Cleveland, Ohio Semantics To the Editor: A long-standing belief of mine has been that Zionism, over the years, has accomplished its goals: the redemption of a Jewish Homeland and subsequent establishment of a political state in Eretz Israel...
...If we fail at this long-term effort we will have to face the truths of Mr...
...Carol Wulfson Little Rock, Arkansas continued on page 6 continued from page 3 To the Editor: Brighton Beach...
...Even if we begin an all-out educational and persuasive effort today, it will take years to overcome the communist propoganda, the distortion of historical information, the fear of perpetuating religious life and the stigma of having been a "Zhid...
...It is also quite likely that they do believe that these Day Schools are better than the public schools...
...It is probably also true that they share the racism of many Americans in their antipathy toward Black and Puerto Rican youngsters...
...With the year 1980 at hand, the term Zionism has long outlived its usefulness as a rallying point for Jews of the Diaspora...
...Having been reared and educated in a land where we have found the ideals of humanism and freedom to be compatible, as nowhere else in our history, to our own Jewish traditions, we experience grave discomfort in dealing with the suggestion that dictatorship over the destiny of our brothers can ultimately preserve the collective security of our people...
...Janet D. Cohen St...
...We consider ourselves truly blessed to have found each other, and I suggest to some of my single Jewish sisters to drop your age prejudices and catch 'em in college, because the 18-22 year old women are stiff competition...
...Sherry H. Bissell Long Beach, California To the Editor: Kudos to Bill Novak for his insight and for making public what some of us have known for years...
...Louis, Missouri To the Editor: Right on William Novak ("Are Good Jewish Men a Vanishing Breed...
...I hope that this has begun a dialogue of importance...
...Hy Karsh Brooklyn, New York Last Words To the Editor: For me and many others in the Wilmington Jewish communtiy Harry Bluestone made one final statement to which his daughter, Naomi Bluestone, fails to make reference in her sensitive article, "Last Words," in the December 1979 issue of moment...
...All I can say is thank God, as I will be approaching my 28th birthday, I am also planning to be married this year...
...How incredible to see the picture story in your latest issue...
...It may be not only that "good Jewish men are a vanishing breed," but also that career women are now freer to demand emotional maturity as part of a healthy relationship...
...As little girls we shared our innermost thoughts and secrets with each other...
...Group for the Rabbinic Ordination of Women) New York, New York ( orrcction To the Editor: I write to correct a mistake in my bio (moment, March 1980...
...I would hope that your article will stimulate discussion and that those Jewish men who do exist will think twice before they consider marrying a non-Jewish woman...
...She is undoubtedly correct that the reason why a great many of the Soviet Jewish families send their youngsters to the Day Schools is not necessarily their desire to provide a Jewish identity for them...
...The address of our organization is: G.R.O.W., Suite 7F, 745 West 111th St., New York, New York, 10025...
...To the Editor: Thank you for presenting the fine article, "Are Good Jewish Men a Vanishing Breed?," in your Jan/ Feb issue...
...Dulzin's argument and no amount of rationalization will relieve our guilt...
...I suggest that we have not a minute to lose...
...My roots...
...We suffer a kind of schizophrenia of our internalized value systems...
...I found the article informative and timely for the women of the baby-boom, like me, who found the availability of single men for dating almost non-existent...
...I would like to add a word about the American-Jewish encounter with democracy...
...Harry Bluestone did indeed leave some "final words...
...John Ruskay New York, New York...
...Except for a few wealthy benefactors there has been almost a total absence of bequests to our Jewish institutions...
...Now we continue to form close relationships with other women that allow for emotional sharing and caring...
...43 (Grades 7-9) and Abraham Lincoln High School (Grades 9-12) are all excellent schools...
...For those of us who are single Jewish women concerned about the future of Judaism (intelligent, active and caring women) it is sad that we have such difficulty meeting Jewish men...
...it has been the subject of many conversations and blind dates over the past ten years...
...Almost Mrs...
...Elaine Cogan Portland Oregon To the Editor: I am most disturbed by some conclusions in the photographic essay regarding Brighton Beach by Barbara Pfeffer...
...Indeed, we have just begun to talk constructively about providing values and knowledge as well as apartments and jobs...
...225 (Grades Kindergarten-6), James J. Reynolds J.H.S...
...My solution...
...With respect to the quality of public education in the Brighton Beach area, I must inform you that P.S...
...Constance S. Kreshtool Wilmington, Delaware Ordination To the Editor: We are pleased to inform Rochelle Saidel Wolk ("The Bitter Letter of the Law," January/February 1980) that the prospect of rabbinic ordination of women within the Conservative movement is far from dead...
...Russian speaking paraprofessionals are assigned to these schools to assist with family contacts...
...Would you care to volunteer...
...Stanley H. Bloch Brooklyn, New York Vanishing Men—and Women...
...The resolution to this dilemma resides in accepting responsibility for the unfortunate loss to our Jewish communities of the Russian immigrants as participating Jews...
...What Harry Bluestone has done so effectively is to tell us that he considered our Wilmington Jewish community a part of his family that he was concerned about its future, and that he wanted to share with us not just words, but the means to carry on...
...While we are reluctant to command that refugees go to Israel, we have also been pitifully slow to provide the educational materials, the enthusiasm and the positive reinforcement, over time, that »would encourage the immigrants to understand our history and achievements and to want to join us in affirming the strength of our American Jewish future...
...Since I left as a teenager I have been back to New York many times but never to Brighton Beach, because my relatives and friends in other parts of the city had warned me that it had "changed...
...However, the relationships with men are different...
...Pfeffer to visit the public schools of Brighton Beach...

Vol. 5 • April 1980 • No. 4


 
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