To: Philadelphia Jewish Voice
I came across this article, "Zionism In a Multiethnic World", from the
magazine "Moment" Feb. 1998 (actually I was given it by a friend, who came
across it because she never throws anything out, and she knew that Arthur
Hertzberg was my cousin). I'd like to suggest it for Philadelphia Jewish
Voice readers because, even though it was written 13 years ago, it could
have literally been written yesterday (or today, or tomorrow). Hertzberg
was a well-known rabbi, served as President of the American Jewish Congress,
as Vice-president of the World Jewish Congress, and was a scholar,
historian, and prolific writer (The Zionist Idea, The French Enlightenment
and the Jews, etc.).
The article covers many issues, but mostly deals with the relationship
between the Diaspora and the Jews of pre- and post-state Israel, then
touches on the Holocaust, and in the last 3 paragraphs focuses on the
current Israeli/Palestinean conflict (current in 1998, unchanged in 2011).
Readers can jump to the last 3 paragraphs at their peril, but they would
still get the gist of Hertzberg's thesis. However, it would be much more
rewarding to plod through his intellectual musings on the Galut (Yiddish for
Diaspora) and its relationship to Israel, as well as to its host countries.
In those last 3 paragraphs, readers will easily identify the current
Netanyahu-led Israeli government as one which "dig(s) in our heels and
become(s) isolationist". At "our" peril, unfortunately. And in not only a
"multiethnic world", but in a multiethnic Israel as well. Zionism has
changed since Herzl's time, and by the end of the 20th century, Hertzberg
wished that Israel would catch up, before it's too late.
http://www.doingzionism.org/re... David Broida
dbroida@gmail.com
Haverford, PA
Jane Curtin as Vanessa Redgrave and John Belushi as Yasser Arafat in the April 8, 1978 opening sketch of NBC's Saturday Night Live spoofing Vanessa Redgrave's anti-Zionist polemic at April 3 the Oscars upon winning the Best Supporting Actress Award for her work in the title role of Julia.
By David Broida
Remembering Vanessa Redgrave, raising a rifle and dancing with Yasir Arafat, is easy, because - to use a popular cliche - a picture is worth a thousand words. If only I had a picture to demonstrate a recent anti-Semetic outrage from across the pond.
In Scotland this time, the West Dunbartonshire Council has voted unanimously to boycott the purchase of all Israeli goods, including books. The measure, introduced and passed in 2009, was in response to Israel's Gaza incursion, which in turn was in response to the thousands of rockets that were fired from Gaza and landed in and near Sderot in southern Israel (are you following this?), and it indicated the municipal government's dissatisfaction with Israel's military actions.
That's not new news of course, the council vote being 2 years old. What is news, but has failed to make the front pages in the U.S., or any back pages either, or even a 2-inch article buried deep in the New York Times, is that the West Dunbartonshire Council seems to have fallen asleep at the wheel. While Egyptian forces killed around a thousand peaceful demonstrators in Tahrir Square, while many hundreds, probably more, Tunisians were slaughtered by their government while peacefully protesting their lack of democracy, while Baharain, guilty of much the same, and futhermore, now guilty of putting physicians and nurses on trial for supposedly helping non-violent demonstrators in that country, while the 42-year dictator Col. Gadafi and his forces continue their war against their own Libyan people, and while in Syria shells its civilian population and refugees there-------need I go on? Apparently, yes. Add Syria and the recent violent repression of peaceful protest in Hama and elsewhere.
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