Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE Kudos for di Canzio Chicago, 111. To the Editors: Picked up the July 13 edition from the rack at St. John Fisher Church where I happened to run for Mass this A.M. before my classes...
...MARY JANE GROGAN KEARNEY Israel's origins New York, N.Y...
...Thomas More Chapel, aptly described as "self-conscious about being Catholic in such a setting...
...The article also refers to "statistics widely quoted" showing the Israeli public favoring "land for peace...
...To the Editors: I must take exception to Margaret O'Brien Steinfels's "Report on Israel" [May 4] on several issues...
...To be fair, the writer should have mentioned that the Jewish people were willing to accept the United Nations partition plan creating a Jewish state and an Arab state, but that the Arab world refused to accept the plan and, when Israel declared its independence, attacked the fledgling state...
...According to the article, Hannah Arendt "hoped that by developing new forms of government cooperation with the Arabs, the Jewish people would give the world alternatives...
...Newman was ahead of his time, no doubt, but surely his from-the-grave plea for "elbow room" should not go unheeded today...
...Elbow room, yes Dayton, Ohio To the Editors: My thanks to Commonweal for giving us Joseph A. Komonchak's hundredth-year memorial piece on Cardinal Newman's life...
...With my coffee, I read William di Canzio's "An Encounter with Lady Poverty" and was transported to that world of New Haven and St...
...The majority do favor land for peace but only if there is assurance of national security...
...before my classes start...
...One perspective holds that the United Nations' partition plan was an illegitimate expropriation of Arab lands, homes, and resources, motivated in large part by Western guilt over the Holocaust and sympathy for its victims, and conceived in ignorance of the region, its history, and its inhabitants...
...I've been an admirer of Newman since reading his Present Position of Catholics in England...
...Her view did not prevail...
...With great skill, and without a single reference to contemporary events, Komonchak has collected, from the vast corpus of Newman's writings, passages that speak directly and powerfully to our present ecclesial situation...
...Without referring once to politics or the daily pressure of the militantly atheistic state on those with courage to practice their faith, the preacher proclaimed a spiritually powerful message of trust in God's providence in dark and difficult times...
...This implies that it was the fault of the Jews living in pre-1948 Palestine that Arendt's views did not prevail...
...THE REV...
...Alban parish in Glencoe...
...In my stay I found that today some Israeli Jews, Zionists like Arendt, share her concern over racism and excessive nationalism and question their leaders' willingness to take (or respond to) initiatives aimed at achieving a comprehensive settlement...
...I have long since forgotten the readings and the homily based on them-but not the rapt attention of the small flock to their pastor's words...
...I salute this issue and may soon be able to subscribe again...
...asher labend The author replies: I question the usefulness of once more reviving the debate over the events of 1948, but if it's to be done an opposing view of that history should be heard...
...I recalled this experience as I read Joseph A. Komonchak's fine article on "Newman's Infallible Instincts" [August 10...
...Every time I visited while two of my kids were at Yale it was grey and raining...
...One hopes that it will be widely read...
...Hannah Arendt's opposition to the creation of a specifically Jewish state predated the proclamation of the UN plan...
...BOB MASS...
...I urge you to report the news in an objective fashion and not hold Israel to some messianic standard...
...To report these sentiments is not to impose a "messianic standard" on Israel...
...MARGARET O'BRIEN STEINFELS Newman ior now Glencoe, Mo...
...For me, di Canzio evoked a sense of place and created a most memorable lady...
...To the Editors: On an August Sunday in 1962, a year after the erection of the Berlin Wall, I attended Mass in East Berlin, celebrated in...
...BOB MASSheeded today...
...a makeshift chapel in an apartment house...
...She preferred a secular, democratic, and pluralist state because she thought it would be better able to create a just and peaceful modus vivendi in the region...
...Maybe he should stop worrying about whether his plays sell and stick to this kind of writing-doubtless, though, he can do both...
...JOHN JAY HUGHES The writer, a church historian, is pastor of St...
Vol. 117 • September 1990 • No. 16
