Beginnings
I am fresh back from Israel, my trip having taken place between the dismissal of the West Bank mayors and the outrageous shooting in the Dome of the Rock, a relatively quiet time as such things are...
...But that is June, and this is May, which has its own claims...
...I am fresh back from Israel, my trip having taken place between the dismissal of the West Bank mayors and the outrageous shooting in the Dome of the Rock, a relatively quiet time as such things are measured in the Middle East these days...
...Shavuot happens on May 28.1 have never fully understood why this major holiday has been so utterly neglected by so many Jews, since it is— potentially—so major an occasion...
...The movement for serious control—and reduction—of nuclear weapons has gained considerable momentum in recent months, no doubt partly as a result of the Reagan administration's apparent belief that nuclear threats and nuclear wars are bearable...
...There is, apparently, little that we can do to effect his release...
...So much for May...
...But surely there is more that might be done, and should...
...Jews, it seems to me, have a special responsibility in connection with these matters...
...Moreover, we are, in some sense, witnesses to the intolerability of it all, people who have been forced not only to think about the unthinkable, but to experience it...
...there is, however, every reason to remember him, and to take such courage as we can from his uncommon example...
...We know what it can mean when a regime decides that any human being may be exterminated...
...That is not a statement of strategy, nor an endorsement of any of the active proposals for limiting nuclear arms...
...Finally, it is not by happenstance that the Breakstone-Metzger article on the development of a public school curriculum on nuclear issues appears this month...
...Two notes regarding moment's contributing editors...
...Never have I found the country more beautiful to behold, never more painful to confront...
...I refer to Mae Rockland, who regularly shares with us her expertise in the Jewish arts, through her updates of The Jewish Yellow Pages...
...One— Steve Whitfield—is the recipient of the Kayden Prize for the best book in the humanities published by an American academic press...
...This is our Law Day—and surely that warrants a more concerted effort at imaginative celebration than we have thus far managed...
...On May 21, Andre Sakharov will turn 61...
...The award, which is new, is presented by the University of Colorado...
...hence we are in a special position to caution what it may mean when a regime decides that all human beings may be exterminated...
...No one, no matter his political views, can be sanguine about the present situation or, for that matter, about the future prospect, I have some things to say about these matters in my editorial.later in these pages, and next month, in our June issue, we plan to review rather comprehensively both situation and prospect...
...Is this not a fertile ground for the innovative thinkers of our religious movements...
...This month's article is only the first of our own contributions to the movement to sensitize all Americans—and not only Americans^—to what it means to fiddle with the end of history...
...For us, history and biography merge, and the notion that all the travails—and triumphs—of our people shall have been for nought is unacceptable...
...Another joins our masthead this month, though her work has appeared in our pages for some time now...
...Yasher koach...
...And May, as well, is the month when we celebrate the giving of the Law...
...In the meanwhile, merry May...
...It is, and means to be, a call on Jews to think about these things, to become informed, to refuse to let the "experts" decide, to engage themselves in the debate...
...We disagree...
...That no longer seems so very old to me, and the thought that there are many years of exile and of sorrow in store for this great man is infinitely depressing...
...The book, Into the Dark: Hannah Arendt and Totalitarianism, was published by Temple University Press...
...Everything is here at stake...
...The Reform movement has done its share to reclaim the day, joining to it the Confirmation ceremony, and the Orthodox, I trust, do it ample justice...
...Everything...
Vol. 7 • May 1982 • No. 5
