Letters
LETTERS Combating the Religious Right To the Editor: I agree with Norman Lear's and People for the American Way's message in "People Vs. Falwell" (November 1984), that the rising power of the...
...She reported that her niece was wearing only summer clothes-slacks and a t-shirt-and looked as if she had lost about 70 pounds...
...The fact that moment has not printed articles about Ethiopian Jews since 1978 is nothing to brag about...
...Saudi Arabia--its search foi elusive Arab consensus as...
...Jews who think it is such an evil should first put pressure on Israel to abandon its apartheid and if it works there, then let us consider it in South Africa...
...It is but one part of a broad range of programs we have designed to develop an insightful understanding of Israel-her nation, her people...
...Whereas the teaching principles were mostly correct, the description of the town was an insult to the people who live here...
...The increase in support for gay rights is a consequence of the increased visibility of gays...
...R. Hugh Uhlmann Kansas City, Missouri [A point of clarification: The moment staff picketed at the Boston branch of a national company that sells South African krugerrands.-The Editors] Cover Confusion To the Editor: Okay...
...Daniel Najjar Washington, D.C...
...Vowing either to emigrate or end her life, Nadya has been subjected to force feedings, being drugged and anesthetized, and round-the-clock surveillance...
...Copies of the article are pouring into Sandusky from relatives of Sandusky folk from Chicago, New York, Cleveland, even Boca Raton, Florida...
...By stepping forward and letting ourselves be counted, by proving in sight that we are to be neither feared nor pitied, we have set the stage for the increased tolerance demonstrated in Cohen's survey...
...It is important that Jews are able to distinguish between private beliefs and public policy...
...Sara Cohen Chicago, IllinoisLETTERS Jews, Gay Rights and Auto-Emancipation To the Editor: Thank you for including in the analysis of the "National Survey of American Jews" (Steven M. Cohen, January-February 1985) a description of the current Jewish attitudes toward gay rights and gays...
...v shares with us what he has learned about each country';- position, its point of ww and prime concerns...
...This trend of openness is particularly pronounced among gays who are Jewish...
...The results of the American Jewish Committee survey demonstrate conclusively that this is not so: Attitudes about gay rights in the Jewish community have become more favorable than in the population at large (80 percent, as compared to 50 percent...
...Simon has published a book entitled Jerry Falwell and the Jews...
...Other magazines have done just that without endangering anything...
...After the initial vote, there undoubtedly would be a dictatorship as is the case in the rest of Africa, which is divided between absolute dictatorships of the hell-hole variety and places where the government merely has created a shambles...
...We urge moment readers to protest Soviet treatment of Nadezhda Fradkova...
...Although Nadya was entitled to a meeting with a relative, when her aunt approached the judge with an application he ignored her...
...It doesn't seem to relate to any specific article...
...We are not content to be the funny uncle living alone, in pride and in silence, suffering the torment of denial and self-condemnation...
...Falwell" (November 1984), that the rising power of the Moral Majority, Jerry Falwell and other ultra-fundamentalists is a threat to religious freedom in this country...
...Nadya's aunt was the only friend or relative allowed to witness the trial...
...Activists have attempted to explain that the homosexual rights battle is precisely a battle over the freedom of visibility...
...Gay Jews, more than any other group, have heeded the lessons of the American Jewish experience...
...We who regret that the world did not do more during the Holocaust have, in part, "blown it again" by continuing our business as usual and not making the saving of Ethiopian and Sudanese lives our highest priority...
...she merely overlooked the responsibility that comes with writing a caricature piece, to which people-particularly its subjects-will respond in a very serious vein...
...Helen Weisberg North Miami Beach, Florida [Michael Fein's photograph on the cover of our January-February issue pictured two Arab residents of the West Bank, two of the 1.2 million Arabs whom Meir Kahane wants to expel from Israel and the territories...
...We do believe, as Mr...
...I am Jewish, itself an oddity in this country's prison system, and starved for communication from people of my lifestyle...
...Only by doing this do we show that we have learned the lessons history teaches us...
...Some will be the faces of those I have loved and lost, others will be of memories of home so far away...
...The truth be known, when entering Sandusky down State Route 250, one passes a shopping center of 83 stores and one of every known fast food store, as well as several nationally known motels...
...As a gay Jew lobbying for civil rights legislation, I have found that Jewish legislators and activists, who are primarily outspoken supporters of gay rights, do not have the perception (and certainly not the confirmation) that their Jewish constituency agrees wholeheartedly with their own beliefs...
...Many Jewish officials and professionals rallied (and voted) in our favor...
...We, who were the invisible unmarried men and women of our parents' generation, are now happily striving for an openly gay Jewish identity...
...providing a brilliant, accurate and reconciling vision for a...
...Ruth B. Cohen Williamsville, New York On Non-Propaganda To the Editor: Haim Chertok's piece, "Fighting a Non-Propaganda War" (December 1984) was well done...
...To talk about this being a nice time for checkbook Judaism ignores the grim reality that those left behind are starving and dying daily...
...Activists such as myself are hopeful that these results will convince Jewish leaders to shape nondiscrimination policy confidently, whereas until now they have been reluctant to act...
...With all my family at home in France, I am all alone in this country...
...Hebrew in Sandusky To the Editor: I write in response to the article "Teaching Hebrew in Sandusky," which appears in the December issue of moment...
...For information on how to help, please contact us at 24 Crescent Street, Suite 2G, Waltham, MA 02154,(617)893-2331...
...And during the night I shall cling to my dreams, hoping to find in the peace of slumber a surcease from the rage that gnaws inwardly at my heart...
...regional events threaten stability...
...Jimmy Cartes continues to be one ot the best hopes for;so...
...Recently, I participated in an ugly gay rights battle between liberals and Christian fundamentalists in suburban Washington...
...Although Sandusky has a small Jewish congregation it simply is not rural...
...Well, we've let "the whole world" die several thousand times over in the last year...
...To say that we are really sorry not just for the Ethiopians but also for Israel's image is rather smug...
...Jimmy Cartes fids maintained h:s dialogue \Aith leaders and scholars of i'vltv count;y of the Middle East, seekine to replace partisanship with understand Inq In THE BLOOD OF ABRAHAM...
...As you know we are a non-sectarian, non-political organization dedicated to building strong ties between the United States and the State of Israel, and firm friendships between Americans of all faiths and Israelis...
...own ii'.rv.i The Po/esfiniVins— !ht'<r pursuit or -vt'if -df/tcnTHfiaMoii...
...e in the Middle Easi...
...In essence, these laws are more for the protection of the weaker members of the whole community, of which the Jews are a shining example, and the breaking of them is not such an intelligent act...
...whiig ot then own -destiny siips away...
...My convict's world is a lonely one...
...I am particularly concerned about one of his claims: that by rejecting Falwell and aligning ourselves only with liberals who agree with us on domestic social issues, e.g...
...at the same time ihat the Soviet Union extends its influence President Cartel examte.es this turbulent present in the iiyht ot biblical hisiorv...
...Nadya, age 37, a refusenik since 1978, has been confined to psychiatric hospitals on numerous occasions since she went on her first hunger strike in March 1983...
...explatri ii w each nation's interpretation ot ivha...
...AIFL is proud of the activities of Project Interchange...
...Congratulations to moment for sharing the Project Interchange/America-Israel'friendship League program with the public, as well as for a consistently outstanding publication...
...Even a slow learner should catch on...
...The article does not talk about the African Jews (and non-Jews) who could have and should have been helped, but who have recently starved to death...
...it is certainly because of this ability that Jews overwhelmingly favor equal rights for gays...
...ngvpr - -iis balancing act between peace with Israel and i doming the Arab world...
...We would not need protective legislation if we could tolerate an invisible life...
...It implies that half a loaf (those already in Israel) is better than none...
...The Executive Committee of the ADL has stalled for five years in an implementation of a gay rights policy, although the American Jewish Congress and the Reform movement have already asserted a liberal lead...
...far from the truck-stop picture painted in the article...
...On December 18, 1984, Nadhezhda (Nadya) Fradkova was charged with parasitism and sentenced to two years of labor camp...
...It should be recognized that Israel practices apartheid particularly on the West Bank...
...Jo Amer Director, Community Relations America-Israel Friendship League New York, New York Apartheid, South Africa and Israel To the Editor: The smug comment in the January-February "Beginnings" column about picketing the South African Embassy should not pass without a slight reprimand...
...The Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, for instance, steered clear of the issue, whereas a dozen rabbis came forward on our behalf...
...the Jewish community of 125,000 in South Africa would be disintegrated...
...Rather, we have reaped the dignity of this suffering and are today living as members of our own gay synagogues, anticipating acceptance as equals in the Jewish community...
...The destabilization of South Africa undoubtedly would lead to another successful government along the lines of Cuba, South Vietnam, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Iran and Ethiopia, to name a few places where we were instrumental in ridding a country of governments of whom moment did not approve-with the result of misery, slavery and death...
...We are the people whose motto is that if we save one life, it is as if we have saved the whole world...
...Apartheid is surely evil, but just as surely, it is the essence of geopolitical activity to be able to distinguish between degrees of evil...
...There were witnesses willing to testify on Nadya's behalf, but the court ignored them as well as Nadya's own testimony...
...Effie Shiff Administrate Director Oheb Shalom Religious School Sandusky, Ohio Reaching Out To the Editor: Now it is evening again and the metal bars that separate we poor shadows from the outside world have slammed shut with a soul-chilling echo...
...While interred at the psychiatric hospital, Nadya was informed that she was mentally ill because she desired to go to Israel, because she organized a protest hunger strike and because the KGB is constantly occupied with her case...
...k>d'spromises actually meant By producing this Immensely important and enlightening book...
...Sheila Galland Marvin Ellin Action for Soviet Jewry Waltham, Massachusetts The Ethiopian Airlift To the Editor: "The Ethiopian Airlift: Redeeming Ourselves" ("Tav," Leonard Fein, January-February 1985) upset me...
...Israel- -its military ascendancy, its economic crisis, and the internal struggle to define tht1 borci-.Tb of a permanent rfud secuie hotwlar-d Syria --tts i'livclispiny s:o;v •roi over Lebanon and a"ibi Sons for par-,-Arab leadership Lebanon - --iis f;u*fr,;lcd oiforts 'or sovert'iuntv over it...
...Though those from whom we demand may sometimes sigh, curse or wish us away, we will not relent, and in the final measure we will have achieved what is most important-respect for ourselves...
...Nadya's aunt also stated that the appointed lawyer did not adequately represent his client...
...the Camp David accords...
...Nathan Perlmutter, Executive Director of the Anti-Defamation League, stated last year that "this issue arouses as much controversy in the Jewish community as it does with most other segments of American society...
...but afterwards, some of these same people admitted that they had acted without the sense of community backing, placing themselves politically "out on a limb...
...Now, please explain the cover of the January-February issue...
...Nadya has been isolated continuously from the outside world...
...The positive comments poured forth from those who were tickled to see Sandusky mentioned in print, and who grasped the author's point, that those of us in smaller communities work harder for a positive individual Jewish identity...
...Randalaise A. Le Itson #175-324 P. O. Box 4571 Lima, OH 45802 Update: Nadezhda Fradkova To the Editor: In your March 1984 issue you printed an article entitled "Bandits in White Coats," a letter from Soviet Jewish refusenik Nadezhda Fradkova...
...Nadya reiterated that she doesn't care where she is, if she can't emigrate...
...Chertok's article stated, that there is a way to fight the non-propaganda war for Israel, and are seeking ways to solicit the support of the public in order to expand our programs...
...Before me lies another night in which the moon and stars are only a phantom memory on the ceiling of my cell...
...Her trial was closed to friends and supporters, while local schoolchildren were taken from their classes and brought to the trial to occupy the empty seats...
...T!.»!!,.i.»,(C^i...
...I recently attended a lecture by Merrill Simon, a Jew who is zealously entreating Jewish audiences around the United States to be not only tolerant of Jerry Falwell's support for the State of Israel, but to accept it...
...During the trial, when her aunt asked her if she could send food to the labor camp, Nadya replied that the police would end up eating it...
...Wendy is creative and imaginative...
...See Walter Reich's article, "The Kahane Controversy," beginning on page 15 in that issue.-The Editors] Carter's commitment to a peaceful Middle East continues...
...abortion, prayer in the schools, etc., we Jews are abetting polarization of this country and are boxing ourselves into a comer with Jesse Jackson and his ilk, and various Christian church organizations who are extremely liberal on domestic social causes but who range from being critical of the State of Israel to being blatantly pro-PLO...
...I am bold enough to ask if there is a reader who would share my lonely hours with me by writing and speaking to me of the outside world...
...You could have had articles which mentioned the Ethiopian Jews' plight but downplayed the Israeli government's role...
...I read your explanation of the cover of the December issue...
...The author, Wendy Leibowitz, was one of our best teachers and far more qualified than she leads moment readers to believe through her self-descriptions in the article...
...During the long night ahead I shall experience many things...
...In September 1984 she was told that she would be released from the hospital and permitted to go home if she would promise to feed herself and give up her attempt to emigrate...
...But these are human beings, and we must not be glib about those remaining endangered people and their sufferings...
...She appeared to be in worse physical shape than she had been after her hunger strikes...
...Israel would lose a great ally...
...the result would undoubtedly be disastrous for white and black both, as indeed happened in Rhodesia-Zimbabwe...
...It is ironic that you should mention that you can commit an act of civil disobedience in perfect safety, because last year people who committed the same act of civil disobedience unknowingly, by picketing the Soviet Embassy in Washington, were all punished with jail terms...
...Interested readers can contact us at 134 East 39th Street, New York, NY 10016, (212) 679-4822...
...What is more revealing, though, is that almost half of these proponents are troubled by the "visibility of homosexuals...
...I also share Lear's fear that this movement is inherently anti-Semitic...
...of us - -Jews, Moslems, and Christians— -who share 1 HE BLOOD OF ABRAHAM...
...More important, if the destabiliza-tion of South Africa should occur, the United States would lose a great ally...
...We believe that respect from the American public and from our own community must not only be earned but must be demanded...
...We cannot lead our lives invisibly for the same reason that Jews refuse to be Marranos-a hidden Jew is no Jew at all...
...The negative response was, however, from members of the Sandusky Jewish community who feel that when you are writing about real people and places, artistic license should be limited to include more fact and less fiction...
Vol. 10 • April 1985 • No. 4
