Forum
FORUM Accepting Ads for Arab Health Care and Education You really are self-destructive! By printing an ad by ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid) in your September 1988 issue, you probably...
...But supporting Palestinian children when our money should be going to supporting Jewish (Israeli) children bothers me...
...My second point is that, sadly, the biographical note on Malka Heifetz Tussman (p...
...By their own actions, they have plunged their local economies into chaos, and have kept their children out of school...
...Moreover, we also believe they are wise enough to appreciate the value of allowing voices they disagree with to express themselves.—Ed...
...I have, however, two small corrections to make...
...Accepting ads such as this—especially NOW—is not git fer the Yidn...
...But we would rather err on the side of inclusion—of allowing the expression of views, even though we may strongly disagree with them—rather than exclusion...
...The Palestinians...
...But nevertheless it is very serious event...
...Several copies I've got for almost ten years by chance were very meaningful for me...
...Obviously, borderline cases will arise and a certain amount of subjective judgment is involved...
...Kathryn Hellerstein Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
...Ultimately, they seek Israel's destruction...
...39) that he's never been to Israel, and that he might have gone this year "except for the turmoil...
...But those of us whose "souls are knit" with the soul of Israel assert our right to consider with a different weight the faultfinding of the disconnected...
...Lipset's piece ("Jewish Disunity is Good for Us," September 1988) is both comforting and accurate...
...27 of MOMENT) is no longer accurate...
...S. Rohr Bogota, Colombia We are not absolutely sure what is taught at the schools sponsored by ANERA...
...Thank you very much...
...If you would like to participate in MOMENTA gift subscription program for Soviet refuseniks, please send a check for $112.80, which covers the cost of a gift subscription ($18.00), airmail postage ($31.80) and registration ($63.00) to MOMENT, 3000 Connecticut Avenue, N. W., Suite 300, Washington, DC 20008...
...These details are indicated in the table of contents...
...Anita Norich corrected the translations against the Yiddish poems and translated the "Introspectivist Manifesto" that appears at the end of the volume, and I translated the section of poems by Malka Heifetz Tussman and some of the Halpern, as well as collaborated with Benjamin Harshav on other translations by Halpern, Glatshteyn, and Vaynshteyn...
...We will not accept an ad that is patently offensive—for example, an anti-Semitic statement of views by a neo-nazi group...
...While Jewish pluralism is generally beneficial, on the sensitive issue of our feelings about Israel, American Jews fall into two groups...
...However, I learned from personal experience that the Palestinian Arabs are engaged in terrorist activities against Jews, and openly seek to undermine the fabric of Israeli society...
...We know they haven't paid dues and, as a result, we rightfully question the motives for their critique...
...See the ad by ANERA on p. 9 of the September 1988 issue...
...Myra Reisman Commack, New York I realize that as Jews (good or otherwise) we are to care for everyone...
...I wonder how many readers will cancel their subscriptions and ask for refunds...
...Often, I have disagreed with viewpoints expressed, but never have I been as angry as I was after seeing the advertisement sponsored by American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) in the September 1988 issue...
...I'll keep getting your magazine though...
...There is, however, an important distinction among American Jews that needs to be faced...
...In applying these principles to the ad you question, we were aware that the alternative to accepting this ad was declining to accept it—in other words, refusing to allow an ad asking for funds to provide health care and education for Palestinian children in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon...
...It is true that, unlike a government agency, we are not obliged by law and constitution to provide advertisers with equal access to our pages regardless of the content of the ad...
...By printing an ad by ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid) in your September 1988 issue, you probably angered 80% of your readers...
...We also believe our readers recognize the value in allowing those they disagree with—-even vigorously disagree with—to have their say...
...Therefore, in accordance with your instructions, we are sendingyour donation to the Braude International School in Karmiel, a school for children of new immigrants to Israel.—Ed...
...I view your decision to accept the ad for publication as implying that it is desirable, or at least acceptable, to support the Palestinians financially...
...We suspect the reason for their reproach is to justify the emptiness in their Jewish hearts where Israel should be...
...Thank you very much for such a gift I could never imagine, for I feel very honored to be subscribed for MOMENT...
...I think that this step gives us hope that it will be time of free exchange of information and thoughts...
...Enclosed is a check for S200...
...Boris Kelman Leningrad, USSR The Fault-Finding of the Disconnected S.M...
...If you are absolutely sure that in the schools sponsered by ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid) hatred against Jews is not taught, by all means please transfer the money to ANERA...
...In short, we believe in allowing competition in the marketplace of ideas...
...They do not need us to screen them from such a request...
...No one questions their right to have attitudes on any subject...
...They cannot expect their criticism to be taken seriously by those of us who are committed to Israel in a more fundamental way...
...We place confidence in our readers' ability to discriminate between the wise and the foolish, between ideas and causes they wish to support and those they do not wish to support...
...For you to allow MOMENT to be used in such a way is reprehensible, and illustrates a genuine lack of understanding of the peril facing Israel and the Jewish people today...
...we want to hear about them from others, but only when they are doing well...
...Betty Hurwich Zoss Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts Corrections It was gratifying to read Jack Riemer's kind words about American Yiddish Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology in the July/ August 1988 issue of MOMENT...
...In order more faithfully to convey its feeling, we have not subjected this letter to our usual editing process...
...In addition, I translated the first of the poems you reproduced after the article, Malka Heifetz Tussman's "In Spite," although, since there is no explicit crediting of the translators in the proximity of these translations, it is not at all clear that the translations are taken from American Yiddish Poetry...
...I strongly believe in the importance of establishing peaceful relations between Jews and Arabs on all levels...
...This group's attitude is akin to our feelings about distant relatives with the same last name as ours...
...I was very surprised to get this copy, as simple as it is [should be...
...Harriet R. Rothschild Plamfield, New Jersey I have been a reader of MOMENT for the past eight years...
...To find an advertisement in MOMENT asking us to donate for Arab children is amazing...
...This magazine is one of my favorite, but almost not available...
...I have confronted Arab men, women and children in the administered territories who have raised the PLO flag, chanted "Palestine will be liberated in blood," and violently expressed their desire to see Israel eliminated...
...During that time, I was stationed in the administered territories...
...But the values inherent in the great American constitutional principle of free speech are applicable in a non-governmental context as well...
...Criticism of Israel from this quarter is worthy of respect, precisely because of the less-than-arms-length relationship between the critic and the criticized...
...For the most part, I have found the magazine to be thoughtful and informative...
...Maybe it is a real result of Glasnost...
...One group is interested in Israel only to the extent that Israel's actions and reputation reflect upon them as American Jews...
...I therefore cannot view ANERA's ad as a plea to aid innocent people...
...There are limits...
...Hatred of Arabs is not taught in any Jewish school...
...I was very touched, and gratitude to you and people who payed and organized this subscription and hope that we'll be able to be helpful...
...It is American Jews who believe everything they hear and read in the media, disregarding common sense, who have stayed away from Israel...
...Joseph Alexander Yardley, Pennsylvania We are great believers in the right of free speech, and this guides our decision to accept or decline an ad...
...We are concerned about the Jewish refugees in Israel and those still in Arab lands or Ethiopia or the Soviet Union...
...Then, I hope, it is possible to establish a correspondence with the authors who write for our unofficial journals, like "Leningrad Jewish Almanac," Moscow's ' 'Shalom," and some others...
...First, Brian McHale, Anita Norich, and I did not "assist" the Harshavs in the making of this book, as the footnote on p. 19 suggests, but rather, as the title page and preface state, we "participated" in various ways: Brian McHale read the translations for English style...
...Christians—Dutch, Germans, Scandinavians, and others—went to Israel and found no turmoil...
...For more than 50 years there is no printed matters of any kind [of] Jewish subjects, but anti-Zionist and anti-Israel propaganda...
...What is not mentioned in the ad, is that these same people are the ones responsible for the intifada...
...Should you have any doubt, however, then please transfer the money to a Jewish school...
...She died in March 1987...
...I am an American-born Israeli, and have recently completed two years of service in the Israel Defense Forces...
...I'm really very obliged...
...He states that ' 'American Jews are deeply committed to Israel," even though survey results from 1983 and 1986 show the committed proportion, shrinking...
...Who has caused the ' 'West Bank-Gaza crisis" which ANERA calls to our attention...
...This is fundamentally different from (I hope) the majority of American Jews who care about Israel for its own sake as a Jewish homeland...
...Soviet Refusenik Thanks MOMENT The following letter was sent to us by a Soviet refusenik who received a gift subscription to MOMENT as part of our "Soviet Refusenik Gift Subscription Program...
...In fact, I consider your acceptance of such advertising to be harmful, and have thereby decided not to renew my subscription...
...Rick Goldberg Austin, Texas Christians Go, American Jews Stay Away Alec Flamm, retired president of Union Carbide, says in the September 1988 MOMENT (p...
...Certainly some members of this latter group believe, as Lipset indicates, that ' 'present policies (in the territories) are wrong and can lead to the destruction of Israel...
...We believe our readers are mature enough and perspicacious enough to decide for themselves whether they wish to support this group...
...I like to know what the ENEMY is up to...
...They have fomented civil insurrection, and have publicly proclaimed that they want all of Israel as part of their proposed state...
...But the same cannot be said of criticism from Jews in the first group...
Vol. 13 • November 1988 • No. 8
