Letters
LETTERS On Sharing Our Grief To the Editor: This is in reply to Rabbi Miller's article (moment, December 1982) about sharing the Holocaust Memorial. It reads, "The Holocaust Memorial belonged to...
...Shapiro, Kingsfeld, Argazi, Ossodry is an incomplete roster of the Cyprus Jewish community...
...I did not convert so that I could become a convert—I converted so that 1 could become a Jew...
...Cowan's tensions...
...Blitzer refers to Arens' brother as a "lawyer in Connecticut who never made aliyah...
...There were thousands of Jews detained in the camps who dispersed in 1949 to Israel and other parts of the world...
...as most of my contemporaries either are part of the Reform movement or are non-observant and my two brothers and their families are practicing Buddhists...
...Niel Solomon Baltimore, Maryland Sons and Brothers To the Editor: Regarding Wolf Blitzer's article on Ambassador Moshe Arens (January-February 1983), I would like to add a minor clarification...
...I am certain that solutions lie within each of us and I encourage moment readers to be engaged in this process...
...For me, it is a matter of heart in Halachah...
...Are there people living in the United States or Canada who know that their families lived in Cyprus...
...but as members of the Jewish people...
...Roberta Saffran Dallas, Texas...
...The opportunity we have is to let our experience be a positive force that transcends ordinary divisions...
...1 have been married for 19 years to a wonderful man who grew up in an Orthodox home, and I was the "resident shiksa" in the beginning...
...Joanne M. Hemmer Cincinnati, Ohio To the Editor: It is a pleasure to note your addition of Rachel and Paul Cowan...
...There is nothing in life we truly own and the opportunity to release our personal hold on what we claim to possess exists at all times...
...March 1983), well-meaning as they are, undermine the very goal they intend to achieve: they patronize, separate and identify as different a group of people who would benefit most by being addressed not as some sort of pathetic minority within a minority...
...This is not about giving up anything—it is an invitation to participate in a larger arena so that nothing is lost and more and more is possible...
...Is there no room for everyone's heart in this game...
...If it's all the same to you (and it should be) I will get on with the business of being Jewish...
...I hope Ambassador Arens is "disturbed" by his brother's views, but I doubt they will have any impact on him or his government's policies...
...I am looking forward to future articles by the Cowans and all future issues of moment...
...But a monthly column...
...In a reference to Leviticus 19:33, the Midrash Sifra states: "You shall not oppress [the convert| by reminding him: yesterday you were a |gen-tile], and only now have you entered the Shechinah" (Parashat Kedoshim, 8:2...
...Just to show how low the present government of Israel has fallen, Arens is not the only one to have a son or brother go against him: Minister Yosef Burg's son is one of the leaders of the Peace Now Movement in Israel...
...Prof...
...The Jewish community is both creator and caretaker of the Monument, but in the most profound sense is not its owner...
...Educate me about Zionism in America, sensitize me to the Holocaust and its ramifications, inform me of the state of Jewish affairs in Washington and Europe, enlighten me about every brand of Judaism from orthodoxy to humanism, raise my awareness of Jewish issues and direct my efforts to heighten my Jewish activity...
...Marion L. Stone Stamford...
...Blitzer also notes that his brother's position on the Middle East deeply disturbs Ambassador Arens...
...If you must, include a feature article here or there on the seeming inadequacy of conversion preparation of potential Jews, or on the damaging nature of stereotypes and derogatory terms (such as Jeffrey Salkin's "Shy-lock in Drag...
...And now I am the "religious" member of my own family (parents, brothers, etc...
...What we have been confronting lies invisible within ourselves...
...Arens is an internationally-known human rights activist whose writings on genocide even include an introduction by Elie Wiesel for his book on the Ach6 Indians of Paraguay...
...My "conversion" was gradual and illuminating—as my children grew so did our traditions and observances, and my feelings for the depth and warmth of Judaism...
...This is not quite correct...
...Oppressive, at best...
...His brother is the esteemed Professor of Law at the University of Bridgeport (CT), Richard Arens...
...Managing sensitivity, privacy, personal pain and attitudes by denying others the freedom to non-violent full self-expression withholds a fundamental human right...
...More power to sons and brothers...
...March 1983...
...Some struggle because they keep kosher, others because they don't...
...moment provides the opportunity for expressing an expanded sense of being Jewish, taking into account a world of valid beings...
...I (andl daresay that many of my fellow gerei tzedek) do not take well to being ghettoized, journalistically or otherwise...
...Anyone who can help to piece together these stories may contact me at 6 Alma Rock Rd., Stamford CT 06903...
...Surely, given the level of creativity we are capable of, a "yes" that works for all is possible and the willingness for it to be that way will produce it...
...Some struggle because they don't "look Jewish," others because they do...
...I am now gathering more material on these subjects...
...I think this statement is incomplete and would add the words, "and the world...
...Being a Jew by birth, but from a non-observant family, I can relate to Ms...
...Jack Nusan Porter Cambridge, Massachusetts Query To the Editor: During a recent stay in Cyprus 1 established contact with Cypriot Jews and obtained information about the British detention camps used in 1946-49 to stem the tide of "illegal" immigration to Palestine...
...An accounting of the discomforts of being Jewish seems to me little more than an exercise in commiseration...
...As I prepare to have a "family" Seder, including about 40 of my both Jewish and non-Jewish friends, who are my "family" in Dallas, Texas, I am finally confident enough to answer those queries and quizzical looks with just a warm smile and an ease of my own wholeness...
...My nostalgia for childhood Christmases and secular observances has finally become a dwindling memory...
...There is a natural human inclination to resist fully acknowledging and validating some experiences of others in a tangible way...
...I no longer feel the need to apologize to anyone for my affiliation...
...I was immediately taken with them in their first article, and with the warm and contemporary feelings expressed about their life and their affiliation with Ansche Chesed...
...In addition to the detainees there were observer teams, journalists, volunteers who saw the camps as well as relatives who may have photographs, letters and documents sent to them from the camps...
...Connecticut Our People To the Editor: The greatest service you could do for converted Jews or for Jews who are discovering Judaism for the first time in their lives is simply to treat us as Jews—period...
...What Jew doesn't struggle to become comfortable with his or her Je w-ishness...
...I think that this real and unspoken restrictive covenant does not work and is a way-of-being that contains the problem...
...Some struggle because they have no Holocaust survivors in their ancestry, others because they do...
...In so doing, you will help me far more effectively to strengthen my people than you will by insulting the integrity of my decision with piteous anecdotes about naive converts who were not sufficiently prepared to cope with a predominantly Christian American society, or who can't accept the fact that confronting ignorance goes with the territory...
...I don't know how Blitzer knows that...
...This resistance exists within the Jewish and non-Jewish communities...
...We are now Conservative, observant Jews...
...Columns such as "Our People" (Paul and Rachel Cowan...
...What I need, as a Jew, to help strengthen the people of which I have become a part, are the tools for becoming a better Jew and person...
...The pages of your magazine are much better spent on'articles which will strengthen me as a Jew—however it was that I came to Judaism...
...Some struggle because their Christian relatives celebrate Christmas, others because their Jewish relatives celebrate it...
...I do know that these brothers hold diametrically opposite views on most issues and have not talked to each other for many, many years...
...Berdichevsky (later Berdy), Luria...
...It reads, "The Holocaust Memorial belonged to our entire Jewish community...
Vol. 8 • April 1983 • No. 4
