In A Moment
IN A MOMENT B'nai B'rith is falling apart, says writer David Makovsky. Once the leading American Jewish organization, B'nai B'rith International is now assailed by financial troubles and declining...
...Its peculiar, seemingly impenetrable style and arcane subject matter make it difficult to approach, but the rewards of studying the text make it well worth the effort, according to two feature articles in this issue...
...Daniel J. Elazar analyzes the new political strength of the ultra-Orthodox in Israel in "Election 1988: Did Israel Move to the Right...
...Fenyvesi is the author of Splendor in Exile: The Ex-Majesties of Europe (New Republic Books, 1979...
...A graduate of Yeshiva University, St...
...But when the missing line appears in a rival newspaper whose offices are across town, the shocked writer must re-examine his notion of causality...
...Neusner is the Ungerleider Distinguished Scholar of Judaic Studies at Brown University...
...A Hungarian-born Jewish reporter returns to the country he left more than 30 years ago and is shocked to find the Hungarian people in 1988 mourning the loss of "their" Jews...
...Who wrote the Mishnah...
...He recently served as Washington diplomatic correspondent for The Jerusalem Post, and in February 1989, he is rejoining the Post's staff in Israel as a political analyst...
...They have imbued the memory of the annihilated Jews with a certain positive mystique, says Charles Fenyvesi in "Jewish Ghosts Still Haunt Eastern Europe" (p...
...He is also director of the Center for the Study of Federalism at Temple University in Philadelphia...
...Metzger is a judge for the Office of Administrative Law for the state of New Jersey, hearing cases involving state government agencies...
...In an effort to revive itself, B'nai B'rith looks to its assertive new president to quell internal strife, woo younger members and strengthen its position in American Jewish life...
...Schiff is currently on a fellowship at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy...
...Netter is the associate rabbi for Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel in Westwood, California...
...He is the author of A History of the Israeli Army: 1874 to the Present (Macmillan, 1986), and co-author of Israel's Lebanon War (Simon and Schuster, 1984...
...Former editor of the National Jewish Monthly and The Washington Jewish Week, Fenyvesi writes a political column called "Washington Whispers" for U.S...
...Why doesn't the Mishnah refer to the Bible...
...He is a graduate of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he was ordained in 1982...
...Now I am placing my energy into creating an acceptance and celebration of the aging process," Mitchel told MOMENT...
...Makovsky is finishing a master's degree in American foreign and economic policy and Israeli politics at Harvard University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies...
...Our two On My Mind columns speculate on two of the challenges facing Israel— from the Palestinians and from within...
...Seeing a Jew in a dream is good luck, say dream interpreters in today's Hungarian countryside...
...Judge Solomon A. Metzger, in a charming vignette, explains how he learned to appreciate the depth of an elementary Mishnah lesson in "The Rebbe's Gavel" (p...
...On the Mishnah, his most important works are The Mishnah, A New Translation (Yale University Press, 1987...
...See "B'nai B'rith on the Brink" (p...
...This year, his delightful cartoon creation "Little Israel" turns 40...
...Fenyvesi crossed the border illegally into Austria, and emigrated to the United States soon after...
...Born in Hungary in 1921, he studied in Paris at the Sorbonne before immigrating to Israel in 1948...
...When a pompous writer for a Yiddish newspaper finds a line of type missing from his article, he curses all Yiddish typesetters...
...Why does so much of the Mishnah focus on Temple ritual when there was no Temple in the days of its rabbis...
...20), Neusner shows you how to unravel what at first appears to be a thoroughly opaque passage from the Mishnah—the very last passage in the entire book...
...Metzger finally understood that the Mishnah is not simply esoteric wordplay, but a workable guide for achieving justice...
...Gardosh is the recipient of three State prizes, including the prestigious Jabotinsky Award for lifetime achievement in an individual field...
...Do born-Jews accept converts as full-fledged members of the Jewish people...
...His most recent article for MOMENT, "Can Yijz Greenberg Really Bring Us Together...
...See p. 17 for our alternative ending and the rules of the game...
...Most of its current members are 65 years old or older...
...His most recent article for MOMENT, "Creators of Worlds: Jewish Imagination and the Arts," appeared in October 1987...
...Mitchel is a weekly columnist for the Miami Herald and president of her own public relations firm...
...Gardosh is editorial cartoonist for the Israeli newspaper, Ma'ariv...
...The Mishnah, the wellspring of rabbinic literature, represents an oral tradition that was written down around 200 C.E...
...Once the leading American Jewish organization, B'nai B'rith International is now assailed by financial troubles and declining membership...
...In "A Brief Mishnah Lesson" (p...
...14), a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, reflects Singer's playfulness...
...While more than 100,000 Jews still live in the city of Budapest, rural Hungarians consider the real Jews—the village Jews—lost forever...
...Also in this issue, author Chaim Potok reviews Singer's recent book, The Death of Methuselah and Other Stories (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1988), p. 53...
...Netter explores the history of accepting converts into the Jewish community and reveals the ambivalence that has existed for centuries within the Jewish people...
...Singer, now in his 80s, is still writing stories and novels in Yiddish, his native language...
...appeared in November 1987...
...Journalist Claire F. Mitchel recently took a course in creative writing at the University of Miami with Nobel laureate and novelist Isaac Bashe-vis Singer...
...They are as relevant today as they were when first published...
...it is failing to meet the needs of youngjewish professionals...
...News and World Report, and is a garden columnist for The Washington Post...
...see review, p. 54), Judaism: The Evidence of the Mishnah (Scholars Press for Brown Judaic Studies, 1987) and The Essential Mishnah (Jason Aronson, Inc., forthcoming...
...He is widely known as a writer and lecturer and is the author or editor of more than 200 books...
...paradoxically, the fact that many converts "tMt,< take Judaism very seriously makes some born-Jews trust them even less, says Rabbi Perry Netter in "Will Your God Really Be My God...
...Many Jews seem to feel that one cannot become a Jew...
...Not only can you read the story, you can try your hand at writing an alternative ending to this intriguing Singer yarn...
...John's University School of Law and the University of Missouri, he has also worked for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs as counsel to administrators of housing programs...
...Since moving to Florida 15 years ago, Mitchel, who started college at the age of 50, has also earned a master's degree in urban geography, hosted a weekly radio talk show, headed the Women's Concerns Office in Broward County, and tried her hand in state politics, when she ran unsuccessfully for state legislator...
...He has produced several collections of cartoons, and also has written short stories and one-act plays...
...Born in 1937 in Debrecen, Hungary, Fenyvesi left his native land at age 19, after the Soviets suppressed the 1956 revolution...
...His interest in converts stems from a program he devised in 1984 to help converts in his synagogue become integrated into Jewish community life...
...The Missing Line" (p...
...Israeli political cartoonist Kariel C. Gar-dosh ("Dosh") has aimed his illustrative barbs at Israeli and international politics since the founding of the state...
...On a visit to his childhood synagogue, Metzger met his Mishnah teacher, who began to question him about the practice of justice in civil courts...
...In celebration of the anniversaries of Little Israel and the state of Israel, MOMENT presents a selection of the best political cartoons "F^rom An Israeli Cartoonist's Portfolio" (p...
...Mitchel describes the artfulness—and playfulness'—of her famous teacher in her article, "In the Presence of the Imp— A Class with Isaac Bashevis Singer" (p...
...Answering these and other questions, Jacob Neusner examines the Mishnah as a work of great humanistic literature in "The Amazing Mishnah" (p...
...As a student who had participated in the revolution, he faced oppression and imprisonment...
...In "A Pessimistic Optimist Ruminates on the Intifada" (p...
...57), political analyst Ze'ev Schiff, defense editor of the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, wonders if the intifada can lead to a breakthrough for peace between Israel and the Palestinians...
...Elazar is president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Senator N. M. Paterson Professor of Intergovernmental Relations at Bar-Ilan University...
Vol. 14 • January 1989 • No. 1
