Beginnings
Is it not peculiar that Rosh Hashanah precedes Yom Kippur? One might have expected that the Ten Days of Awe, the time of our cleansing, of our turning, would come first, before the new year, so that...
...Why not...
...We offer both the pieces and our responses here, on the theory that the season calls upon us not only to straighten out our affairs with God and with other people, but also to take, if we can, another step in the never-ending search for peace within ourselves...
...It has occasioned profound unease and even distress, and properly so...
...No waste of precious gasoline gift-shopping, no waste of time or energy...
...Is this just another instance of Jewish perversity...
...While living...
...And it is a special pleasure to be able to report that a goodly number of you who have purchased gift subscriptions at our special reduced rate have been back on the phone to us with additional orders...
...Talk about occasions...
...And we do that while we live, not before we live...
...27-39 is provided courtesy of Bet Hatfutsot, the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora near Tel Aviv about which I had some very nice things to say in my article in last month's moment...
...Well, here it is the High Holiday season...
...Several months back, two manuscripts wandered into this office on the same day...
...Let this affair not be used by either group to rationalize or to justify its fears and suspicions of the other...
...For those of you who may have missed those nice things, I repeat their substance here: The museum is quite extraordinary, and should be a must on any visit to Israel...
...First comes the "GO...
...Our way, instead, is to say that we know there is no entirely fresh start, that the past impinges on the present, that sweetness and regret are invariably intertwined...
...It is an event that both reflects and portends very serious developments in the U.S.-Israel relationship and in the relationship between Jews and blacks in this country...
...Our way is to insist that the first order of business, after the world is born—for Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the world—is to make it, and ourselves, work right...
...Hardly...
...One might have expected that the Ten Days of Awe, the time of our cleansing, of our turning, would come first, before the new year, so that we might enter the year clean, the errors of our last year accounted for at that year's end...
...But no, we do it differently: apples and honey, glad wishes, and then...
...From the moment of birth...
...In fact, an investment, a way of expanding the boundaries of the community we care about...
...Quite coincidentally, both dealt with the same subject— broadly, the Jewish identity of the author—albeit from very different perspectives, and with very different conclusions...
...It is not . merely an unfortunate tale of an ambassadorial slip...
...Evidently, the ease of ordering and the response of your friends and relatives to the gifts have encouraged you to think of moment as a "natural," a gift suitable for all manner of occasion...
...Our High Holiday section in this issue includes an exchange of letters to which a tale attaches...
...Almost 2,000 new subscribers have joined the happy family of moment subscribers...
...And both seemed to us to want responses even more than they wanted printing...
...It is worth bearing in mind that Jewish commitment to the civil rights movement was never undertaken because blacks were nice, or because they were polite, or even because they supported our causes in return...
...God help us if it is...
...and then the "Get Ready...
...We're very pleased and very proud that we will be able, in the months to come, to share with you other exhibits mounted by the Museum, and, as soon as we can, a feature article on the Museum itself...
...It is, therefore, with great delight that I can report that during the months of June and July, we have experienced an unprecedented surge in our subscription rolls...
...To have done it the other way, to have ended the last year with a time of assessment, only then to begin the new, would have suggested a starting over each year, a clean slate to go with the apples and honey...
...we don't give that kind either...
...The photographic essay which appears on pp...
...instead, we engage in the messy business of living, and, while living, try to fathom the meanings of repentance and return...
...4-5...
...In the case of this magazine, that is an especially powerful piece of truth, since we do not have much advertising...
...L'shanah tovah tikatevu v'tichatemu...
...Much of that growth we have you to thank for, since so many of you have taken advantage of our toll-free gift program (described on pp...
...We may hope, and should insist, that black support for Israel will be offered freely and not be used as a bargaining chip in a tawdry political game...
...The life of a magazine is its subscribers...
...As this issue goes to press, the Andrew Young Affair has descended upon us...
...Awe, penitence, fasting...
...How's that for understatement...
...Apples, honey—and moment...
...We are taught that everything has meaning, or can be made to...
...In our next issue, we shall have considerably more to say about all these matters...
...We don't take ten days out of life for reflection...
...It was forthcoming because it was—and is—right...
...As our subscriber rolls grow, our capacity to provide you with a better magazine grows as well, and our future is stabilized...
...It is an event which underscores once again how central the Palestinian question has become, and how important it is foi everyone involved in the continuing saga of the Middle East to insist on the distinction between the PLO and the Palestinians...
...Allies are friends, not robots...
...Not blind support, not uncritical support...
Vol. 4 • September 1979 • No. 8
