Forum
FORUM Is Woody Allen a Prominent Jew? Your critical comments of Woody Allen ("How Woody Allen Saved Israel from Herself," April 1990) are well taken. However, I must disagree with your...
...There are already many encouraging parallels with the transformation of moment from its previous incarnation to its present excellence...
...Perhaps Hershel Shanks (a personal friend whom I gready admire) was a bit kinder and gentler when he took over moment (perhaps, but I doubt it), but he had no prior publishing experience outside of archaeology...
...Michael I. Selzer Sheffield, Massachusetts Motives are Irrelevant Hershel Shanks complains ("How Woody Allen Saved Israel from Herself," April 1990) that Woody Allen asks the wrong question in his criticism of Israel but then proceeds to ask the wrong question himself...
...All the signs are positive so far...
...Presumably, "Bernie the accountant" and other characters of the story are still alive...
...I hear constantly from community leaders, political and spiritual, how important it is for us to stand behind Israel in her struggle for her very existence...
...Re "How Woody Allen Saved Israel From Herself" (April 1990): I am a Jew...
...While I appreciate your effort to provide a forum for rabbis, and while I admire the quality of the sermon excerpts quoted, I believe that the very concept of a digest of paragraphs from different sermons does grave injustice to the genre of the sermon...
...Joseph Pilmenstein, Ph.D...
...It must be remembered, Mr...
...When I first read this, I thought that finally an American Jewish periodical was going to foster appreciation of sermons as literary works, sermons of the caliber of those by Israel Levinthal, Milton Steinberg, Abba Hillel Silver and of the generations since...
...Similarly, medieval crusaders, who left a trail of death and destruction on their way to the Holy Land out of a love of God, are not exempt from culpability because their motives were so exalted...
...Lorraine C. Gollub Culver City, California No Need for Jews to "Understand" the Poles Hershel Shanks' assertion that the Auschwitz convent dispute "played badly among Poles" sums up the whole apologetic tone of his article ("The Strange Enrichment of Seeing Auschwitz," February 1990...
...Harvey 0. Wolinetz Scarsdale, New York Ad Hominem Attack on Woody You pose this question to Woody Allen ("How Woody Allen Saved Israel from Herself," April 1990): 'The real question is why did you say it, there and then...
...I have a Ph.D...
...The people who speak for us must be Jews such as those who protested the convent at Auschwitz, since it is they, I believe, who represent the feelings of the vast majority of the world's Jews...
...A question ad hominem reduces the person asking it and is intended to reduce the person of whom it is asked...
...Lowenstein's statement of what the adult says to the child is exactly what clients tell me was said to them...
...it's just unbelievable that this situation can be...
...But the dictionary definition of pagan is one who is not a Christian, Moslem or Jew...
...Once Albert Einstein said that the best job for an immigrant scientist is to be a keeper of a lighthouse, because he will have a lot of time to think...
...Yehuda Levy is one of the most versatile, sensitive, effective Israelis I have ever met...
...It did not take him long to change most of the key names on the masthead and name himself editor...
...But according to Einstein's relativity theory, time and tide wait for no man...
...The intelligent discussion in these articles is sincerely appreciated...
...Allen, I would know exactly why I wrote it: "moral outrage...
...In a way, I wish it was I who had written the piece in the New York Times op-ed page...
...Each of the groups has been deeply impressed with his knowledge, integrity, articulateness and fairness...
...Sharon Heim Brookline, Massachusetts Intelligent Discussion of Sex Abuse "Confronting Sexual Abuse in Jewish Families" by Sharon Lowenstein and the accompanying statement by Rabbi Irving Greenberg (April 1990) are outstanding articles...
...All that matters in the arena of public scrutiny is whether or not that criticism is defensible...
...Stefanie Perlstein Bridgeton, New Jersey An Unemployed Russian Immigrant I would like to inform you that your moral support in obtaining exit visas for my family and myself succeeded...
...For the record, I did not leave the Jerusalem Post because of the Post's "dovish position": I left the Post in protest over the consistent inaccuracies of its reportage...
...Shanks can't bear to differentiate between Jewish holocaust suffering and that of the Poles...
...I, too, am outraged, Mr...
...If so, we can't begin it meekly, with our hats in our hands, and, considering the nature of the history involved, it won't always be polite...
...for nine months...
...Shanks, that there is much more to being a Jew than politics and ajewish state...
...I also gave time and money to a multitude of Jewish and Israeli causes...
...Now that there are almost no Jews left, I see no reason to stomach those antisemitic perceptions...
...However, I must disagree with your description of him as a prominent Jew...
...in chemistry but am currently unemployed, even though I sent hundreds of my resumes to many companies and had a few interviews with them...
...He learned the hard way, while serving as the IDF's liaison with the media in Beirut...
...Scranton, Pennsylvania The Courage to Go Public Ya'asher koach to Sharon Lowenstein ("Confronting Sexual Abuse in Jewish Families," April 1990) for her courage in going public with her story...
...Had your reporter bothered to check with me, this inaccuracy would not have occurred...
...Why Woody Allen criticizes Israel is irrelevant...
...Moreover, he constituted a 29-member editorial advisory board, of whom only several have had journalistic experience...
...Between them Levy is referred to as a travel agent and a "heavy-footed" retired colonel with no newspaper background who will "never earn a living in the diplomatic corps...
...Career advancement for many new Americans automatically stops after their arrival in the U.S.A...
...Instead, we get a statement that if your rabbi has something to say it is best said in a four or five paragraph excerpt...
...Herbert A. Fierst Washington, D.C...
...Because then, in answer to your last question to Mr...
...In Boston, a monthly support group for Jewish women survivors of child sexual abuse was begun over a year ago under the auspices of the Jewish Family and Children's Service...
...If these "Borscht Belt" resorts were/ are a reflection of our values, no tears should be shed at their demise...
...I recommend you confine yourself to the latter...
...I find his even-handedness on this issue offensive...
...The Jewish loss was immeasurably greater, and not just in numbers...
...Are we certain that God wants us to beat people up...
...I am well aware of a people's need to demonstrate an image of solidarity in the face of hostility and criticism...
...I want to register my disappointment with your new feature, "As the Rabbi Said...
...Watch the Jerusalem Post under Yehuda Levy...
...Shanks believes that it is time to begin a dialogue with the Poles...
...It seems that now, in an effort to stifle expressions of dissent, embarrassment, outrage from within our ranks, we must resort to "Woody-bashing";— to insulting a man publicly for expressing himself, in the hope that the rest of the Jewish world will join with you, and attacking his personal sense of "moral outrage" (your description) by belittling him and essentially accusing him of lying...
...I have long been a supporter of Israel, particularly when measured by the New York cabbie's and your yardstick: I visited Israel as early as 1966, before it became in vogue to go there, before the big war...
...Actually, the real question for you to ask is, "Was Mr...
...I am not ignorant...
...I hear it perhaps more now, since the intifada, than at anytime since the Yom Kippur War...
...I am aware of your important role in the American Jewish community...
...Painful as it is to recognize that such abuse occurs in the Jewish community, denial of its existence serves only to perpetuate the problem and isolate the victims...
...I'm very disappointed...
...I have been a permanent resident of the U.S.A...
...Motivations are hardly a fair test to assess the merit of any action...
...Jersey City, New Jersey...
...As a Los Angeles attorney specializing in family law, I do encounter the painful experience of assisting a family or defending a parent in sexual abuse matters...
...Rabbi Howard R. Greenstein Reform Congregation Ahavath Chesed Jacksonville, Florida Have Jews Become a Pagan Group Fighting for a Country...
...Reasonable people may disagree on that issue without impugning each other's motives or piety...
...This group has been invaluable in helping relieve the isolation of Jewish women, providing support and connections to available resources in the community...
...If over three million Jews still lived in Poland, it might be necessary...
...Lawrence Jurrist Hallandale, Florida Disappointed with "As the Rabbi Said...
...That is a question ad hominem...
...What you are in fact saying is that sermons reduced to a few brief paragraphs are of literary and theological value—perhaps of more value than their full texts...
...Will it be "transformation or disintegration" for the Jerusalem Post...
...I met my family, both the Russian and Austrian sides, a year before some of them would perish in defense of their new homeland...
...The real question is not why Woody Allen wrote his public critique, but, as Shanks summarily dismisses himself, whether Allen did indeed exaggerate what Israel was doing...
...I can...
...Shanks...
...Aren't you...
...I hope that you could utilize your influence and knowledge to solve this pressing problem...
...That is, those Jews who were vehement about the issue were too parochial, an embarrassment, a "shanda for the goyim...
...When referring to the controversy, he "understands" both the Jews and the Poles from what seems like a safely lofty perch...
...The "Woody's" of the Jewish world are not answerable to you or to anyone more than they are to God, sir...
...It did not fit the otherwise thoughtful stance of your magazine...
...You declared in print, "Do your rabbi's sermons make you sit up and take notice...
...Erroll J. Goldstein, M.D...
...Poland, albeit bruised and battered, still survives as a sovereign nation...
...April 1990) I do not recognize the Yehuda Levy I know so well...
...At best, he may be a Jew who is prominent...
...What's more, it has ceased losing money—a worthy goal for moment, tOO...
...That is a substantive question...
...Unlike Mr...
...As to your last comment—-from your mouth to God's ears—Ed...
...but can we be certain that it is His will that His chosen people create for themselves a land in which it is politically and morally acceptable to make a mockery of Jewish law...
...Why He Left the Post I read with interest Jay Bushinsky's article ("The Jerusalem Post: Transformation or Disintegration...
...If so, encourage your rabbi to send a sampling...
...It seems that the world is seeing us less as a major Western religion with a strong devotion to God and more as a pagan group fighting for a country...
...moment should be comrrfended for raising the awareness of its readers to the problem of child sexual abuse...
...Someone who chooses a career because it pays well may not evoke our admiration but may still achieve outstanding performance...
...A substantive question, on the other hand, may enlighten both persons...
...It is my thought that you would be interested in this problem...
...But these people might be of service to their new country, where their talents, experience and skills can be utilized...
...Now I am very concerned about the future of American newcomers, especially highly qualified scientists and engineers...
...He is also very highly regarded in the American and Canadian Christian communities for the many talks he has given to them about Israel and trips to Israel he has arranged for them...
...Jewish life in Poland was virtually annihilated—at times by Poles as well as Germans...
...I am outraged when Jewish people beat up other people, just as I am outraged at parents who beat the little children I help them bring into the world and at the husbands who regularly brutalize their wives behind closed doors and manage to portray themselves outwardly as pillars of their community...
...I am confident you will find it a great improvement, as I have already...
...During the past seven years I have teamed up with him in taking a series of groups of influentials to Israel for intensive, in-depth sessions...
...Rabbi Elliot B. Gertel Congregation Rodfei Zedek Chicago, Illinois Yehuda Levy is Versatile, Sensitive and Effective From the descriptions of him by Hershel Shanks and Jay Bushinsky ("The Jerusalem Post:: Transformation or Disintegration...
...With the scarcity of qualified technical personnel that exists today in the U.S.A...
...Shanks, I don't feel the need to understand the perceptions of the average Pole...
...No prior background in journalism...
...They may not appreciate the unsolicited publicity by this "lady" who never left the '60s...
...There is no doubt that God has a state of Israel in His master plan...
...Allen justified in what he said...
...Hirsh Goodman, Editor-in-Chief Jerusalem Report Publications Limited Jerusalem, Israel No Tears for Grossingers' Demise I was surprised by your publication of the Grossingers' story ("Grossinger's On My Mind," April 1990...
...For a while he was the chief IDF spokesman trying to cope with perhaps the world's most antagonistic media...
Vol. 15 • August 1990 • No. 4
