Forum
FORUM Shame on moment MOMENT, we're ashamed of you!!! We find it incredible that you could demonstrate such an outstanding example of poor taste and lack of sensitivity for the feelings of...
...However, the 50-year anniversary remembrance of 1938 held in Vienna during 1988, which I described in the June 1989 issue ("Why I Accepted the Invitation David Weiss Declined," Forum, p. 7), was most definitely a move in that direction...
...Customary values of shame and honour justified and perpetuated the system...
...They could have chosen a more efficacious and less damaging manner to articulate their concerns...
...Austria's chancellor Schuschnigg, popular before the takeover, eventually was shipped to Dachau...
...Extremists on both \ sides need to see that most Jews— } including Israeli and particularly • American Jews—distrust the Arabs and i require definite signs and acts of willingness to abjure violence before expecting Israel to make any political or territorial concessions...
...Whether that man calls himself a monarch or a president, he rules by force...
...It seems that his date for reconciliation is closer to the 75-year rather than the 50-year remembrance of the Anschluss...
...In contrast to Mr...
...I hereby correct Howard Eilberg-Schwartz: The Hebrew word ishah FORUM (woman) is etymologically in no way related to the word ish (man...
...Every Palestinian naturally wants to be rid of the occupation, but how to do so with any prospect of liberty, justice and equality is their particular dilemma...
...Honour and shame values still legitimize whatever the ruler sees fit to do...
...I have, however, followed the events in both these formerly Nazi domains with great interest...
...We find it incredible that you could demonstrate such an outstanding example of poor taste and lack of sensitivity for the feelings of others...
...That some of these people are nettle-some and less committed to Jewish and Israeli causes than many of us would like is understandable...
...I submit that David's point of view is defensible in the situatfon where the state has full control over a given organization—as is the case in totalitarian societies, such as Nazi Austria was...
...Undoubtedly, the Austrian scientists and dignitaries who attended the various functions of this meeting, as well as the many Austrians who read Dr...
...One look, and one had to know what it was about—unless one was blind at heart...
...That his parents and their contemporaries were idealists, good people, Jewish people, who were understandably misled by the context of Hitler, Nazis, Stalin, Spain and World War II into thinking that serving the Communist party was the best thing for Jews and the entire human race, including America...
...In addition, in all dictatorships— whether of the right or left—there exists a much larger "silent minority" that disapproves, but is wholly voiceless in an autocratic society where the state controls all the media...
...32-49 '. of this issue will provide an insightful basis I for further discussion of the serious issues you [¦ raise.—Ed...
...During hakafot (processions with the Torah scrolls) on Simchat Torah I watched, on the women's side of the 5-foot-tall opened curtain mechitza, as my husband danced with one of my daughters around the Torah...
...Add to that the fact that certainly Israeli Arabs enjoy not only economic but political rights that their cousins do not enjoy in any neighboring countries...
...Alpher writes: "Many Israelis . . . are aware that Israel is a veritable superpower alongside any conceivable Palestinian state...
...Add to that the fact that the land in question was captured by a country only after it was attacked by half a dozen enemies sworn to its destruction...
...Syria, of course, is indeed in a category of its own here, in that it is actively engaged in acquiring for itself "strategic parity" with Israel—by which it means the capacity to launch a (it hopes) successful war against Israel without the help, necessarily, of other Arab states...
...Similar to the claim of liberal rabbis and leftist Jewish leaders today, Bernstein seems to be saying that the radical affiliations of his parents' generation went together with, and should today go together with, a natural expression of instinctive Jewish morality and goodness...
...Today's women, however, have more time to give to Jewish communal life and learning...
...Where are we and our daughters headed in Orthodoxy...
...Interestingly, Alpher does not bracket Syria with this group, but mentions it separately, as a potential supporter of a future attempt to launch another round of war against Israel...
...May I suggest that the opposite is true...
...Far from creating genuine representative institutions, the PLO is yet another one-man despotism in the making...
...They do not show the many people sitting in their homes in anger and dismay and total helplessness, like my own family and many of their friends...
...One may not agree either with the policy preferences or with the arguments of the Commentary Zionists but we have no right to suggest that both they and their positions are devoid of morality...
...He is quite right that the Austrian state—in contrast to the German state—has never admitted to its guilt for crimes committed under the Nazi regime between 1938 and 1945...
...There is no doubt that Austrians would have voted against a union with Nazi Germany...
...But one small, though disturbing, point of nomenclature needs to be addressed by all political persuasions...
...However, it was marshalled with typical German efficiency to produce a tumultuous welcome for Hitler...
...Even within a group that we may deem undesirable, there are likely to be persons who deserve to be evaluated individually, and may prove to be exceptions...
...I asked him not to close the mechitza so we could watch...
...Had no one read the Nazi newspaper, Der Slurmer ("The Storm-trooper...
...Within two days of the Fuhrer's march into Austria, all radio stations, newspapers and magazines were under Nazi control, cranking out torrents of adulation for Hitler and his pan-Germanic aspirations...
...Frances and William S. Gouled Bethesda, Maryland David Pryce-Jones Responds To Muhammed Hallaj It was an interesting and hopeful editorial idea to ask an Arab to comment on the extract from my book The Closed Circle which you published in your October 1989 issue ("Understanding the Arabs: 'Self-Imposed Despotism...
...So be it: The time for reconciliation is a personal decision, and he has every right to his opinion...
...This is a legacy from the past, in which Arabs took their identity from their tribe and religion...
...Zuckerkandl's theme...
...A customary system emerged whereby the strong ruled the weak, and seized the spoils accordingly...
...In addition, 32,000 gentile Austrians were killed in concentration camps and jails...
...It was the classical rabbis—not I—who assumed a linguistic connection between the Hebrew words for "man" and "woman...
...Our daughters are attending_)»ttAie/a high schools and yeshiva colleges...
...David and Goliath in Reverse Joseph Alpher, in his counter-proposal to Helena Cobban's piece, ' 'If Arafat Utters the 1-Word, Should Israel Say the S-Word...
...But, there must be a new Orthodox point of view that includes women in synagogue life...
...It is no coincidence that the Austrians whom David Weiss and I knew best—our respective nannies—proved to have been sterling members of this invisible minority...
...As a result, the great majority of Austrians—but by no means all—were beguiled by the propaganda, and swept up to join in the carefully stage-managed enthusiasm...
...Commentary Proponents I Are Not Devoid Of Morality i Steven M. Cohen's analysis, "Amoral i Zionists, Moralizing Universalists and I. Conditional Doves" (August 1989), is, i' as usual, thoughtful, informative, and j right on the mark...
...Unfortunately, many Orthodox men and women, when faced with the problem of women's place in the synagogue, simply don't consider the issue at all...
...Our highly educated women and men should sit down seriously and come to grips with this problem...
...Women were not obligated to pray in synagogue or carry out other responsibilities that would make child-rearing more difficult...
...Time and again I stress that Arabs desire liberty, justice and equality, like everyone else...
...The Lebanese example seems to establish that the opposite is happening, and minorities everywhere in the region are being driven into the refuge of their own tribal and religious identity...
...Their arguments are based on historical claims—Israel as a refuge for Jews, the rights of a sovereign nation to protect itself against organized marauders and to defend itself against other states that publicly proclaim themselves to be at war with it...
...Meanwhile the Arab order is absorbing Israel on its own terms, which is further evidence of the vitality of the customary system...
...My book strongly criticizes the colonial powers for failing to ensure that Arabs could meet them on equal terms by means of similar institutions...
...I have struggled with similar situations in the past, but I seem to have rationalized them all...
...Knowing Arabic would have precluded this mistake in correlating these two Hebrew words...
...We are, of course, referring to that "Bark Mitzvah" item in your Spice Box (August 1989...
...They are two different words from completely unrelated stems...
...I have met many women who have been eager to tell me, "Well, I've just gotten used to it...
...The litany of reasons may read like rationalizations...
...they are no less real—nor moral—than those given to support the claims of the PLO or of Peace Now...
...Arnold E. Reif, D Sc...
...Hallaj to dredge up such pitiful stuff...
...Othmar Forster's letter [see p. 9] calls one's attention to those Austrians who opposed the Nazis...
...I write at this length because my book has triggered in a number of Arab critics and correspondents the response that it is shameful to discuss in public the Arab order, whose actual condition is wretched, indeed a tragic waste of human potential...
...Time magazine reports that there were 79,000 immediate arrests...
...Finally, my account of the Israel-Palestinian confrontation is recognizable in Mr...
...It seems that only intimate personal involvement or extensive publicity, as for example the von Trapp family portrayed in The Sound of Music, can make visible members of this invisible community...
...Walter A. Sheldon Lido Beach, New York Reif Replies To Forster and Sheldon Dr...
...What about those who resisted...
...If we do not give our ! daughters opportunities in central Jew-i ish activities, we may lose many bright [ women to other Jewish movements or assimilation, i An educated mind is a sin to waste...
...Cohen calls them "moralizing universalists...
...Unfortunately, Muhammed Hallaj proves completely unconcerned with the substance of my book, instead ascribing to me inventions of his own...
...No matter...
...Regarding David Weiss' letter in the October 1989 issue ("Erasing the Mark of Cain," Forum, p. 7), he insists that it is rational to evaluate Austrian persons individually, judging some to be good and some bad, but he refuses to make like distinctions between Austrian organizations, judging all bad...
...Othmar Forster, M.D...
...Who's Disloyal...
...Actually, David Weiss and I may be much closer in our points of view that the above suggests...
...Whatever enhanced status brought honour, whatever detracted from status implied shame...
...If the Arabs were to form representative institutions in which other tribal and religious minorities could participate on an agreed power-sharing basis, then their problems with Israel would soon vanish...
...I do not feel that Jewish laws were initiated to exclude women...
...I do not advocate women leading the congregation in prayer, women rabbis, or women carrying the Torah for Sim-chat Torah...
...August 1989), makes one unfortunate statement—unfortunate because it reinforces a false notion that has gained wide currency in the public domain, with little objective justification...
...Honour requires that the one-man despotisms must be presented as popularly agreed, and even progressive, never mind the immense distortions of reality that this entails...
...August 1989...
...Israel Howard Eilberg-Schwartz replies: Ms...
...Without getting into their heads or observing the totality of their behaviors, one never knows for sure, but their affirmations of both Israel and Jewish identity suggests that they do not doubt the "moral value" of Israel's existence though they may be unnecessarily sensitive to Israel's faults and to its media image...
...David Pryce-Jones London, England Mr...
...Nothing similar to this admission of guilt nor attempt at restitution has come from Vienna...
...Eva W. Sussman Kiryat Moshe, Jerusalem...
...These pictures give a one-sided view of history...
...Up to that point, the Austrian Nazi party had been considered a rowdy and disruptive minority...
...I am a native of Berlin but have never been to Austria...
...At the beginning of his article, Bernstein characterizes his parents' joining the Communist party not as a politically immoral act, but as a "reckless" act...
...His appeal is to his own kind, as defined by religion, sect, tribe or family group...
...The decisions made by the Allies lend strong support to the legal position of the Austrian government that it did not exist as a sovereign country between 1938 and 1945, and therefore cannot be held responsible for crimes committed while its constitution and laws were subordinate to German laws...
...In his first article ("The Significance of Gestures," March 1989) he says to Dr...
...Hallaj, perhaps—has to show how to create the representative institutions which alone can break the legacy, and allow the Arabs to participate in an agreed civic society, with liberty and justice and equality for all...
...They were also a reality but, of course, nobody was there to take photographs of them as a document for the future...
...The strong still despoil the weak as before...
...This minority deserves our remembrance and respect: it takes real courage to resist tyranny in a brutal dictatorship, without much hope of success and knowing that one's life may be at stake...
...If so, then they will also have to discover how to make it responsive to demands for liberty, justice and equality...
...What impedes them from enjoying these ends has nothing whatever to do with "national character" but is a matter of social and political organization...
...Every Arab country today has one-man rule...
...An Orthodox Woman's Struggle An incident happened last year that has made me reassess my role as a Jewish Orthodox woman in our modern times...
...Ultimately, as Professor Cohen has insightfully and convincingly articulated elsewhere, what threatens Israel and Jewish life is not those who are too critical or those who are too accepting or those who use their energies to argue, but those who simply don't care or don't act...
...Still, we cannot condemn them as people or as Jews for not acting exactly as some of us would have preferred...
...Hallaj further conceals my conclusion, that the survival almost intact of the Arab customary system into the present is proof of vitality...
...And why does MOMENT not show the lists of names of Austrians who were brought to concentration camps (like my father-in-law...
...While I do not question Dr...
...Also, we should avoid the automatic damnation of groups and organizations even within the state with policies that we disapprove of, unless there is definitive evidence that the state controls those groups...
...I felt humiliated for myself, my daughter and for all the women present...
...That the Rosenbergs were innocent of the act of delivering the secrets of the atom bomb to Stalin, but were martyrs for the cause...
...This is due to the automated home, increased affluence and the women's movement in general...
...The fact that our hosting Society invited us expatriate Austrian scientists with the obvious intent of rebuilding broken bridges merited a positive response—at least, that was the view of 90 percent of those invited...
...This was by no means the most difficult example to explain...
...Zuckerkandl did not ask Austrians to castigate themselves 50 years later...
...This is something your readers could never guess from Mr...
...For instance, Dr...
...And yet the current situation in the West Bank is very discomforting...
...Most of the signators to the Ti'Man-organized Mew Tork Times advertisement of April 5, 1989, are identified Jews (doesn't their very signing attest to that...
...Hallaj is safe in the West, with every opportunity for objective analysis and free expression...
...In fact, with the example of Hider's blazing intolerance burned into our memory, it behooves us to act in exactly the opposite manner...
...Outwardly, Arab states may display modernity in architecture, communications or weaponry, but in structure they are versions of a historic tribalism...
...Alpher himself is clearly aware of this: Later in his own article he avers that ' 'to persuade Israelis to agree to Palestinian sovereignty it is necessary for additional Arab states to make peace with Israel" and he mentions Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq...
...Sussman missed the point of my essay...
...Rabbi Jacob Chinitz Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Moment Photos Presented One-Sided View of Hitler's Welcome to Austria I did not appreciate the many photographs showing "the enthusiastic welcome of Hitler by Austrians" in Dr...
...That is the general dilemma...
...If he and his like are not willing to deal with arguments except by fictionalizing both them and the author of the arguments, then Arabs have nobody to help them to liberty, justice and equality, and the strong will continue to oppress the weak, and their world will stay as it always was, to the detriment of all...
...David Weiss in the March 1989 issue...
...Considerations of shame and honour of this kind do indeed lead to irrationality in decision-making, to what I have called "self-inflicted and almost suicidal injury...
...Admittedly, among the mass of Austrians such movement has been slow...
...Bernstein is not ashamed of it, nor is he coldly reporting family facts...
...What is Bernstein really trying to say...
...It is imperative for Austria, as a nation, to end this myth of invasion by Hitler and to confess that at the time of Hitler the majority of Austrians were enthusiastic followers of, and collaborators with, the Nazis in committing the crimes we all know...
...His parents were disloyal...
...Until this lesson is not only accepted by Vienna but also taught fully in Austrian schools, Austria will remain an obscenity that avoids redemption...
...Sheldon would like to see the collective conscience of Austrians move...
...Bernstein, by revealing the facts, is being loyal to his country and retroactively justifies his government's policies during that era...
...President, Austrian Society for Allergy and Immunology Vienna, Austria Why I'll Visit Germany But Not Austria I have read Dr...
...He writes that I have a belief in an Arab "national character" which has "irremediable 'defects.' " Your readers ought to^know that this is misrepresentation pure and simple, and nothing in my book allows Mr...
...Some Arab—Mr...
...ReiPs report of Austrians who wish to renew contacts with Jews and personally are willing to face up to the historic facts, there is still lacking a willingness by the Austrian government to admit the share of guilt that Austria bears...
...The communal life was run by the husband...
...Unfortunately none of the other women felt as strongly as I did about this incident...
...His father's summation of that period is contained in these words: ' 'It was a reign of terror...
...Any fair reader of the article would conclude that membership in the party not only did not compromise their social activism, but it may have instigated and sustained it...
...Such a system may prove to be what Arabs really want...
...In that case, I believe that a strong case exists for the view that each organization or society should be judged on the basis of its own actions and merits...
...Hallaj's article...
...Or that they did spy, but had a right to do that because America did not deserve to have a monopoly of atomic weapons...
...He wants us to concentrate on the injustice done to his parents, and to all left-wing movements and individuals by a paranoid American government that included President Truman and the loyalty boards he authorized...
...I M. "Goldie" Kay ( North Hollywood, California [ We hope the articles and boxes on pp...
...I accepted an invitation to revisit Berlin because of the unequivocal statement by various German authorities admitting both guilt and the intent to make restitution while admitting that the latter could never undo the heinous crimes committed under Hitler...
...In telling the story, Bernstein is uneasy about possibly telling too much about his parents, so he concludes: ' 'In so doing I may or may not have committed an act of disloyalty...
...However, with people as well intentioned as our Austrian hosts to lead it, eventual success seems possible in the fight for an understanding of past Austrian guilt in war crimes and against Austrian anti-Semitism...
...While Dr...
...Walter Sheldon makes some telling points in his letter...
...He refused and pulled the curtain closed in front of me and my seven-year-old daughter...
...My essay was an attempt to understand why the rabbis would find plausible connections that we find quite astonishing...
...A rabbi came in front of me to close the curtain, which would have made it impossible for me or my children to see the men dance...
...But that they were mistaken...
...However, modern Austria is a democratic state, and its professional societies are not subservient to the state...
...My other daughter and son were with me...
...My father and mother never did...
...He imagines me as a warmonger and racist who believes that "the Arabs are a peculiar sub-species of humans incapable of civilized living," and that consequently Israel neither could nor should make peace with them ("Understanding Pryce-Jones: 'A Racist Manifesto...
...Hallaj declined the opportunity to reply.—Ed...
...most Jews are repelled by the excessive Israeli violence...
...As past winners submitting material to Spice Box, we have proved that we are not devoid of a sense of humor...
...Reif is entitled to his opinion, I believe he actually helps delay the moment of truth...
...October 1989...
...It is too easy just to consider this an issue for the Conservative and Reform movements to deal with...
...The Austrian Resistance had a membership of 100,000, which is a significant minority even compared to the 700,000 membership of the Austrian Nazi party...
...We should never indulge in wholesale condemnations...
...A re-reading of the article leads me to conclude that Bernstein is saying this: His parents were not only nice and good people, they were right...
...Torah and rabbinic laws describing the roles for Jewish men and women were established in order not to overburden women...
...It is the old Jewish quarter of the Arab city writ large, with its own values within the walls, but adopting the neighbours' customary and tribal practices outside the walls...
...Nevertheless, the enthusiastic early response accorded the Nazis by a majority of the Austrian people saddles Austria with a grave moral responsibility...
...On the contrary, the Austrians have accepted the myth created by the Allies for political reasons, that Austria was the first country invaded by Hitler...
...Israel is taking its place in the Middle East, I suggest, as another tribal-religious entity, one among many...
...That is the "David and Goliath in reverse" syndrome about which we have been hearing and reading so much lately...
...Wellesley, Massachusetts...
...Being an optimist, I believe that some future generation of Austrians will realize the historical facts and recognize that Austria's full participation in the Nazi crimes must be admitted in order to cleanse the Austrian nation...
...On the other side, even if we disagree with their strategy, let us respect those who publicly decry Israeli injustices against West Bank and Gaza residents...
...Forster, "my children and yours may one day be able to meet on Austrian soil...
...Zuckerkandl's talk was printed in full in Austria's second largest newspaper...
...Zuckerkandl's talk in their newspaper, were affected in the direction in which Mr...
...I feel there must be a major role for women in this keystone of communal Jewish life...
...Sitting in the safety of our homes in an enlightened democracy, we cannot begin to imagine the utter helplessness and despair of the dissenting minority in a dictatorship...
...He is obviously proud of his parents' contribution to the social activism of the 1930s and 1940s...
...Where j will they find an outlet for their train-( ing in the synagogue and other aspects j of communal life...
...They did not have any time for involvement in the synagogue or any meaningful Jewish learning...
...However, tasteless parodies of prayers, and ill-conceived treatment of one of the ceremonies that has helped keep Judaism alive and meaningful are not witty or humorous...
...I think publications like yours exhibit some kind of preoccupation but not the real truth...
...In view of these stark facts concerning Israel's strategic vulnerability in a Middle East bristling with rearmament, I find it difficult to understand how ¦ Alpher drew up the "Palestinian equation" in the disingenuous and highly misleading way he did in his article...
...So most Jews support efforts at negotiating seriously with the PLO and the tacit territorial concessions those talks presume...
...Alan M. Fisher Carson, California Are Man and Woman Related in Hebrew...
...The other invited expatriate scientists not only gave scientific presentations, but also mentioned their own personal experiences relating to 1938, and enlarged on Dr...
...In denying its existence, we deny our best friends...
...Emile Zucker-kandl, president of the Linus Pauling Institute of Palo Alto, California, gave a lecture in which he said that he could not accept the explanation, "We did not understand...
...The Orthodox women's place in synagogue is the central question...
...Hitler invaded Austria on March 12, 1938, in order to prevent the holding of an Austrian plebiscite scheduled for the very next day (Time, August 24, 1989, p. 44...
...During the Nazi years, at least 2,700 Austrians active in the Resistance against the Nazis were executed...
...We need not invalidate Bernstein's contribution in uncovering Watergate just because we find his admiration for the Communists of two generations ago a bit disgusting...
...Moshe Aumann Consul General Embassy of Israel Washington, D.C...
...In the colonial past, the British and the French well understood that genuine representative institutions were the basis of their own strength...
...Once again, the strong are asserting their right to rule by force, to despoil the weak, to label whom they please "traitors" or "collaborators" as a prelude to murdering them...
...But, by the same token, we need not invalidate the genuine fear of communism and the genuine attempt to uncover the real Communists of that period, even though we find the tactics of McCarthy and the Un-American Activities committee reprehensible...
...After the war, the Allied Powers repeatedly agreed that the Anschluss had been coercive—notwithstanding the enthusiastic support given to the Nazi regime by a majority of Austrians immediately after the Anschluss...
...I feel strong enough in my beliefs to try to find a better solution this time...
...both publicly and privately involved with both Israel and Jewish causes...
...David Weiss's article ("The Significance of Gestures," March 1989...
...Why label the Commentary proponents as "amoral Zionists...
...Arnold Reif s letter to the editor in the June 1989 issue of MOMENT and the article by Dr...
...But the proposition is not valid, because, in considering whether to contemplate territorial concessions in any future negotiation with the Palestinian Arabs, Israel obviously must take into account not only the potential threat from its immediate Palestinian neighbor, but also from a whole array of Arab states (Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and others) that have deliberately refrained from recognizing Israel's right to exist, that are still at war with Israel and that, in some cases, are making active and ongoing preparations for a resumption of that war...
...Sheldon's belief, I can document that the visit of nine expatriate Austrian scientists (of whom I was one) to Vienna duringjune 1988 helped to increase Austrian awareness of Austrian guilt in crimes committed during the Nazi years...
...Hallaj's caricature of me as a reviver of 19th-century myths...
...In fact, that is the title of his article: "My Parents Belonged to the Communist Party" (August 1989...
...Women in early Jewish history were laden with the bearing and raising of children, housekeeping and many agricultural duties...
...Now that Gorbachev has made communism kosher, Carl Bernstein speaks openly about his parents' communism...
...That seems to be the gist of Bernstein's article...
...Hershel Shanks usually tries for better scholarship than what I find in Howard Eilberg-Schwartz's article "What Happens When God Invents Language...
...Instead, he sought insight for the future, built upon an honest examination of that fateful period, which could produce timeless lessons...
...There should be a place for women in synagogue, equal to though different from men...
Vol. 14 • December 1989 • No. 7
