Letters
LETTERS Minorities To The Editor: I was surprised and disappointed to discover blatant racism in a magazine published by and for a minority group. In Barbara Pfeffer's photographic essay on...
...was delightful to read...
...If you study the past, indeed bask in its perceived infinite and ultimate wisdom and make law based on that assumption, the law it produces can only be a reflection that dwells in the shadows of the past...
...share in this large cemetery) are of a uniform size, as required by the by-laws of the J.C.C...
...The future is now...
...How does one bring the two sides of the mountain together...
...Tradition is the celebration of the past, and law based on that past is a terminal prisoner to and a constant worshipper of the "way it was...
...In Barbara Pfeffer's photographic essay on Russian Immigrants in Brighton Beach (January/February 1980) specific mention is made of the inferior education received at the public schools as opposed to the private Hebrew Day schools...
...Name withheld Madison, Wisconsin To the Editor: "Are Good Jewish Men a Vanishing Breed...
...The reason given is that the private schools have "fewer Blacks and Puerto Ricans...
...It is a dark and sinister vision, a tunnel with no light at its end...
...Naomi Bluestone, who comes from an illustrious family in medicine (her grandfather was the first Orthodox Jewish physician on the Lower East Side in the early 1900s and was one of the founders of the American Mizrachi) made significant and critical observations about the Jewish Community Cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware (moment, December 1979...
...For a woman, a genuine man is often difficult to find, but for us sincere single men (admittedly these may not be in great number) finding a mature, warm, currently unmarried woman is often a similarly arduous quest, especially in the 25-35 age range...
...I am sure many of your readers know that Reb Akiva Eger (17201758) and other tzaddikim wrote in their tzavaot (ethical wills) that no praises or beautiful phraseology be inscribed upon their matzevah, because they did not want to raise themselves above amcha...
...Novak presents an apparently true picture of the woman's side, but a parallel situation exists...
...Judaism, as most other faiths, is not based on logic or reason, rather on emotional, spiritual, and often vague concepts of "Man" and "his" universe...
...Karen Young Bronxville, NY Change To the Editor: In reference to the Wolk article (Jan/Feb 1980) concerning the Conservative Movement not allowing women full participation in religious affairs, I respond: Ms...
...If change is anathema, then progress is heretical...
...Man" has evolved in the past centuries...
...Wolk seeks a rational position in an irrational institution...
...Jan/Feb 1980), was of considerable interest to me...
...The matzevot of the last 30 years in the Jewish Community Cemetery (the Conservative Beth Shalom, the traditional Adat Kodesch, Arbeiter Farband and Ring and J.W.V...
...Cannot "man" grow beyond the wisdom in the Dark Ages and see new light...
...To avoid a conglomerate "forest" of sizes and dimensions, the J.C.C...
...Rabbi Leonard B. Gewirtz Wilmington, Delaware...
...adopted a by-law limiting the height of the matzevah to three feet...
...Arnold L. Cohen Cincinnati, Ohio Last Words To the Editor: Dr...
...So to the women of the world of Judaism who seek equality, you are like many of the dynamic issues of our time who seek resolution, you are to be frozen into the catatonic and ultimately self-destructive tradition of the so-called "living Torah...
...The Talmud (M.K...
...and whether or not that way was reasonable becomes immaterial...
...With this basic principle in mind, space for only a few lines is available for inscriptions on the limited surface: the Hebrew name, the Hebrew yahrzeit date, and the tantzaba...
...Must myopia become the new Jewish disease...
...I see no reason why one minority group should illustrate racism against another...
...Are you willing to circulate the names of your interviewees...
...The Cemetery Committee based this by-law upon the ethical principle inherent in the ritual of tachreechim...
...It is the very reason for upholding and defending tradition...
...Today will be the way...
...Obviously, moment magazine must be reminded that Black and Puerto Rican immigrants suffer many of the hardships that a Russian immigrant does...
...Why must Judaism look backward to find the path forward...
...It only lives for some...
...Is that why we have been called a stiff-necked people...
...So, to change the law in such an institution which is caught in an historical time-warp, one must create a new past, a new tradition...
...The human condition loses again . . . forever...
...We are all together trying to make this a better world for everybody to live in, and after all that we have gone through, comments like this are just plain embarrassing...
...Alan Arthur Zucker Latham, New York Vanishing Men—And Women To the Editor: Your article, "Are Good Jewish Men a Vanishing Breed...
...The reason the situation then was ideal as the basis of law, and perspective now is defective, is another irrelevant query that religion fails to confront...
...Add to this a line for the "English" name, a line for the "English" date and one can appreciate why the paucity of meditative material on the stone...
...Indeed, the basic appeal of religion is that it represents such an anchor of constancy in an uncertain world...
...Why not his view of himself as well...
...Judaism seems to be predicated upon and indelibly linked with the past...
...27b) established the ethical principle of equality in death, and the Rambam (Hilchot Avel IV:1) explains, "so not to shame him who has little...
...History must start from here...
...The above is compounded if one is seeking a Jewish mate and does not frequent bars...
Vol. 5 • March 1980 • No. 3
