Beginnings
Some background to the articles in this issue: On December 21, the New York Times published Anne Roiphe's "Christmas Comes to a Jewish Home." Ms. Roiphe may or may not have known how much of a stir...
...Further information can be obtained from the American Association for Ethiopian Jews, 340 Corlies Avenue, Pelham, New York 10803...
...Americans in general cannot, for obvious reasons, turn their backs on this problem, for whose existence this country is in no small measure responsible...
...That woman's name is Joyce Karchem, not Ketchum...
...Allon in his hotel room, and our conversation with him stretched over two hours...
...Besides, nobody who sings Gilbert and Sullivan in his spare time can be all bad...
...But here Ms...
...I don't know how Mr...
...We immediately decided to print it, adding only a brief afterword that tries to express a specifically Jewish response (Hux is not Jewish, and writes explicitly from the perspective of a non-Jew...
...A couple of (actually three) corrections: (1) The Idyllwild retreat described by Al Wachtel in our November issue spoke of a "gracious woman" whose "selfless and untiring work" insured the success of the enterprise...
...And his campaign slogan is obvious: Kahn Can...
...Happy Tu B'Shevat...
...We began talking, as was inevitable, about the "present situation"—developments in the negotiations between Israel and Egypt...
...And, oddly enough, this inflation fighter whose hopeless task requires him to get everybody angry seems to have impressed just about everyone with his decency and good sense...
...That's a virtue which would probably atrophy on the way to the White House, but it's worth the gamble...
...We cannot capture on the printed page the dramatic increase in Mr...
...But for Allon, the subject is one which evokes real passion...
...Kahn feels about defense spending, or about Rhodesia, or about most things, but I do know that he is blunt, smart, and civilized, and that he does not take himself too seriously...
...Several readers have inquired how they can learn more, and do more, regarding the problem of Falasha Jews, described by Graenum Ber-ger in November's moment...
...Recalling that not all moment's readers are also Times readers, we decided at an editorial conference on December 22 that we would reprint Ms...
...Roiphe plops herself down on the couch for all to hear, and provides us with a classic statement...
...We met with Mr...
...He sits forward in his chair, his voice and his face alive in an entirely new way...
...2) Copyright to the photographs which accompanied Martin Gilbert's article on the Balfour Declaration in that same issue belongs to Yad Chaim Weizmann...
...Roiphe's piece, and we were enmeshed in a discussion of how to frame a response to it when the magazine fairy, in the form of our mailman, arrived with our daily allotment of dross and star-dust...
...Allon—among other things, a former Foreign Minister of Israel—had a good deal to say about the way things are going, and why...
...Alton's enthusiasm as we moved from the international sphere, about which Mr...
...We talked also of emerging values in the Jewish state...
...And suddenly one realizes how incredibly distorting the Arab-Israel conflict has been, diverting and draining the energies of uncommonly caring people, people whose calling it is to fashion an ideal society, but whose burden it is to be trapped by sterile, debilitating conflict...
...Allon is asked wherever he goes in this country, to the domestic sector, about which most people know little—and care less...
...3) Alex Schindler, whose article "The Odd Couple" appeared in our December issue, should have been identified as President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations...
...And all the way through this last portion of our talk, I was conscious of the limitations of the print medium...
...And last, a quixotic effort to alter the face of American politics...
...Assimilation is a distressing mystery to Jews who delight in being and doing Jewish, and while we all know Jews who have meandered away from the fold, it's rare that they will talk easily about it...
...Allon plays a key leadership role...
...How about Alfred Kahn for president...
...That Friday's Stardust was an article by Samuel Hux, which is so brilliantly apposite a rejoinder to Roiphe that there was no need for further discussion...
...By now, she's probably learned...
...A word which should not even be necessary, about the Vietnamese boat people...
...There's also a small story attached to our interview with Yigal Allon...
...Can we not, at the very least, inform our president and our representatives in Congress that there is in this nation a substantial constituency that would support American efforts to offer aid, comfort and refuge to these unfortunate people...
...Two-thirds of the way through, we shifted the focus of our conversation from the Middle East and international affairs to domestic developments within Israel— specifically, to a discussion of the kibbutz movement and the Labor party, in both of which Mr...
...Roiphe may or may not have known how much of a stir her words would occasion in the Jewish community...
...And Jews, more than others, should be sensitive to it, given our own history of homelessness, given the specific memories we have of refugees crowded onto boats that were turned away from every harbor...
...What a marvelously refreshing thing it is to encounter such wit and such wisdom in a high government official...
...Plant a tree...
Vol. 4 • January 1979 • No. 3
