Letters
LETTERS Our House Divided To the Editor: I will not respond to the impudent attack upon my character made by Rabbi Richard Block in his letter in the July-August moment. I would, however, like to...
...Indeed, if the Orthodox had all the answers for keeping Jews Jewish, there would be no Reform and Conservative movements...
...Allow me to remind Rabbi Block that it is Exodus Rabbah, and not I, which states, "The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel, 'If you succeed in keeping the Shabbat, I shall account it unto you as if you have kept all of the commandments of the To-rah...
...Thank you...
...But Ms...
...Herzl" were provided by the Zionist Archives and Library...
...What about Yiddishkeit...
...Yes, I am an adult now...
...The Numbers Game To the Editor: Thanks for sharing Zvi Gitelman's excellent overview of the changes in the USSR's emigration policy ("What Happened...
...Just as one can judge the degree of civilization of a country or culture by how it treats, and regards, its Jews, so I suspect one can evaluate the humanity and moral soundness of a social or political movement by how receptive it is to anti-Semitism...
...Just as Bar Mitzvah-training is the responsibility of the synagogues, so is convert-training their responsibility...
...Al Parashat Derachim III, 30) B) Block states, "An applicant to the Jewish Theological Seminary is required to swear in writing that he observes Shabbat and Kashrut...
...I suspect that most Reform and Conservative Jews also feel they are "Torah-true" and have every right to think so...
...What about Jewish ethics...
...When asked their nationality by a door-to-door pollster, I suspect that many Soviet Jews, fearing anti-Semitic reactions from their neighbors, simply answer, "Russian," or "Ukrainian," or "Latvian"—whatever the dominant nationality in their region...
...Only signed letters with a complete return address can be considered...
...now she is applying these same principles to the issue of nuclear war...
...I would like to comment on his discussion of the changes in Soviet Jewish demography in the period between the 1970 and 1979 censuses...
...Or did I just miss the section where the Shabbos elevator is explained by Moses...
...I wholeheartedly support Rabbi Reimer's request for a broader scope of individual involvement with new Jews and with potential Jews—but I reject the implication that the responsibility for organizing this involvement lies in the offices of our local Federations...
...Shabbat 118b) Ahad Ha'Am (not Andrew M. Sacks) wrote, "One can say without exaggeration that more than Israel has kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept Israel...
...I've known shomer Shabbos Jews who cheated in business and Jews from kosher homes who got nose jobs...
...It is each synagogue's responsibility, as well as the collective responsibility of all the synagogues in any given community, to handle religious issues...
...It is as if someone had sat inside my head and sorted through my experiences, thoughts and feelings and set them forth in an orderly and meaningful way...
...It is the Federation's responsibility to deal with the non-religious issues confronting us as a community...
...I wish I had had teachers like them...
...Exodus Rabbah 25:12) It was Rabbi Johanan who said in the name of Rabbi Simeon ben Yochai (and not I who stated), "If the Israelites were to keep two Sabbaths . . . they would immediately be redeemed...
...At age sixteen, all Soviet citizens are issued their internal passports...
...Edward Stern Boston, Massachusetts UTTERS Continued from page 4 Embracing Converts To the Editor: While I agree with Jack Reimer's position that we all must take responsibility for welcoming and teaching prospective converts ("Embracing Converts: A Policy Proposal," October 1982), I feel that his tirade against the Federation is inappropriate...
...Bush's ability to say what I myself could not...
...I have a friend who is so observant that she sleeps in a separate bed from her Catholic husband...
...I admire Mr...
...Joan Arnold Miami, Florida Facing History and Ourselves To the Editor: I would like to add my voice to the many that have already been heard in praise of the important work of Margot Strom, Bill Parsons and their colleagues ("The Age of Auschwitz, the Nuclear Age," May, 1982...
...Carol Saltzman Washington, D.C...
...Leslie Maloff Pikesville, Maryland Letters to the Editor moment welcomes letters from readers...
...Please add this phenomena to the reasons for the rapidly-changing statistics about the Soviet Union's Jewish population...
...This is absolutely false...
...Surely many youngsters, while privately feeling Jew-ishly-connected, choose the non-Jewish parent's nationality as their official identity...
...During that period, Gitelman writes, "177,000 Jews emigrated—but the number of recorded Jews fell by 340,000...
...Gitelman's analysis is insightful and informative...
...While one would hope all rabbinical students would observe these mitzvot, at no time was I, nor were any of my classmates, asked to swear to this in writing or otherwise...
...A) Block claims that the assertion that Shabbat is most central in the halachah is "Sacks' personal predilection...
...Our children are lucky to have courageous educators like Strom and Parsons, who are not afraid to deal with issues that are difficult, frightening, controversial and often overwhelming...
...In addition, "the more nationally conscious Jews," he notes, "are more likely to leave,"so "we may expect that the rate of acculturation and assimilation will now be even more rapid...
...Now, I feel that I better understand myself...
...Robert L. Cohen Brooklyn, New York 60s Children, 80s Adults To the Editor: I would like to praise Lawrence Bush's article, "Immigrants from the Woodstock Nation" (September 1982...
...Our apologies for the omission...
...She has taken the lesson of Jewish tradition and Jewish history (most of all, of the Holocaust)—that each of us must take responsibility for making this a better world—and now is heeding this mitzvah by teaching responsibility for the gravest threat of all...
...October 1982...
...We reserve the right to edit for publication...
...I, too, woke up naked from the 60s, left alone, alienated...
...From a Jewish viewpoint, Margot Strom is a dugmah—a role model— for all of us...
...Gilbert's assertions, in our congregation, which is Conservative, we have numerous families that have been in the Conservative movement from its inception, and in the Reform movement prior to that...
...Aren't these every bit as central to keeping Jews alive as a people...
...I shall treasure this article...
...Rabbi Andrew M. Sacks Beth Am Israel Penn Valley, Pennsylvania To the Editor: I keep a kosher home and I treasure the Sabbath, but I deeply resent Arthur Gilbert's (Letters, May 1982) attempt to reduce all of Judaism and Jewish culture to these two values...
...They know that this will help in their search for jobs, education, recognition and respect...
...All letters should be typed, double-spaced, and sent to the moment Editorial Office, 462 Boylston Street, Suite 301, Boston, MA 02116...
...To all this, I would add a note about the nature of Soviet census-taking...
...I don't think I fully or clearly realized my feelings or the causes behind my return to Jewish roots until I read Mr...
...I don't know which subject is the more difficult one for children...
...That feminism is so hospitable to Jew-hating is not surprising, in a movement so given to violent anger, hatred and intolerance—but it surely says something significant about the contemporary feminist movement's lack of good values...
...Addenda All pictures (except for the photo of Joseph Bluestone) in October's "A Private Hour with Dr...
...those with mixed parentage can choose which parent's nationality they will adopt...
...Pogrebin, a militant and dogmatic feminist, fails, I think, to draw the appropriate conclusion (a conclusion which Leonard Fein, in his "Beginnings" comment, seeks, with a disappointing lack of rigor, to head off at the pass...
...And just what is "Torah-true" Judaism...
...I do know that there are many, many adults who succeed in blinding themselves to these painful issues, avoiding the very responsibility for the world that the "Facing History and Ourselves" people are teaching to their students...
...Bush's story...
...I would, however, like to correct some misinformation presented by Block...
...Perhaps Rabbi Block ought to pause to check his facts and our rabbinic sources before he so quickly takes pen in hand and commits his errors to print...
...Contrary to Mr...
...Matthew Kaplan Chicago, Illinois Anti-Semitism and the Women's Movement To the Editor: The stories reported by Letty Cottin Pogrebin in her article on anti-Semitism in the Women's Movement (July-August) are indeed horrifying...
...He attributes the extra difference of 63,000 to "the disproportionate number of young people among the emigrants . . . and the over-representation of the Georgian and Central Asian Jews, those with the highest levels of fertility...
...Most of Orthodox observance is based on very human interpretation of God's word...
...I have often wished I could explain to my parents and family the changes through which I've gone...
...First Strom worked to bring real understanding of the Holocaust to public school students...
...We synagogue members, be we Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist or somewhere in between, must accept Reimer's proposal and make the embracing of converts our responsibility—from within the gates of our synagogues...
...They sometimes remark that I've matured (not without surprise in their tone...
...In addition, many young Jews in the USSR have one Jewish parent and one non-Jewish parent...
Vol. 7 • November 1982 • No. 10
