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Has Israel's dream gone sour?
By Fay Schank
President, American
Zionist Federation
During my brief visit in Israel
recently, I was struck by the
abundance of headlines in the
Israeli press describing recent
scandals in the Israeli society. I
noticed from newspaper stands
that they had been prominently
picked up by the foreign press,
too. One msgasine suggested to
its readers the frightening
thought that “the Israel dream
had gone sour." HAS IT?
We Seek Perfection
I presume that, given the
stories of recent weeks, many an
American Jew might begin to
wonder. Our concern is not a
detached one. We have an
emotional involvement that runs
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deep. Wa want the Jewish State
to be Been by ourselves and by
others u good and fine. We want
it to reflect all that it noble in
Judaism. We seek a perfection of
human standards because we in
stinctively realise that we
ourselves are often judged by the
standards of Israeli behavior as
a Jewish State. Hence, when
Israel performs with dnunatic
magnificence (Entebbe) we
stand tall. When it tragically
humiliates itself, we are asham
ed. ,
Such sentiment U natural and
perhapa inevitable, but I ques
tion whether it is justified. By
what right, I ask, have we — and
in this I include old-time
Zionists such as myself — to ex
pect Israel to accomplish the
impossible all the time? Is it not
unfair and immature to judge
Israel by standards that we
ourselves in America fail to up
hold as a collective community?
Israel A Microcosm
For what, after all, is the
Jewish Skate? It is, in essence, a
microcosm and a mirror of the
Jewish world as it really is —
with all its strengths and
weaknesses. The Jewish State is
what the Jewish people are. It
will become whatever the Jewish
people decide it to be. And we
are still very much at the begin
ning of a very long and historic
process.
Seen in this context, anyone
with a sense of Zionist history, is
r certainly disturbed by the recent
public distress in Israeli life but
is hardly stricken by fear and
despair. I say this because the
Zionist memory carries with it a
sense of perspective and propor
tion that is shaped by tales from
the past whose negative dimen
sions exceed the stories of recent
weeks. I recall this not as an
apology, but as a fact of history.
Yes, the magnificent march
forward of Zionism and the
rebirth of Israel was always ac
companied by ugly digressions
that left contemporary
onlookers Bewildered, ashamed
and sometimes profoundly anx
ious.
I recall reading, for .example,
about the Jewish farmers of
Rehovot before World, War I,
who would not employ Jewish
labor because Arab labor was
cheaper. Jewish pioneers literal
ly starved as a result. One
speaks of “yordim,” of Israelis
leaving Israel today. But what of
the famed, legendary Second
Aliya? — the aliya that was sup
posedly composed of giants who
laid the foundations of modern
Israel. Recent research has
shown that many of those
pioneers eventually left the
country, mainly for America.
Anyone who remembers the
1950s in Israel remembers the
black market as almost a way of
life. This was the time when
one's job often depended on
belonging to the “right party." It
was the time, too, when vast
sums were paid out in bribes to
newcomers in the “ma’abarot”
(the immigrant refugee camps)
to vote as party hades wanted
them to vote.
I register these facts not to
besmirch Israel, God forbid. I
recall them to emphasize that
from the earliest days of pioneer
swamp-draining, there uflts
Israel was a paragon of virtue.
To be human is to err and
Israel’s society has always been
very human. It has never been a
glamor cavalcade of “Exodus" —
invented blue-eyed, blond,
larger-than-life Ari ben-
Canaans, swashbuckling their
way toward distant sunsetting
horiaons, chanting “Hatikvah”
as they went.
Israel’s Reality
Israel, in its reality, has
always been something greater
than that. As individuals it is a
nation of saints and rogues with
the majority somewhere in
between. As a collective, it is a
society that is immensely self-
critical, never complacent, and
always conscious that it lives un
der an international magnifying
glass. In short, it is classically
Sandy Springs BBW
A local artist will discuss
“Trends in Akt” Thursday,
March 8, when the Sandy
Springs Chapter of B’nai B’rith
Women meets at 10 a.m. at the
home of Mrs. Fay Gold, 553
Holleydale Cr. N.W.
Ms. Gold will speak ai^ishow
the group her art Collection and
workshop.
Members are reminded to
bring old shoes for the Shoe-
Shoe Train. Reservations may be
made with Betty Seitz, 252-0313,
or Carol Fogel, 252-7939.
The Temple
The Temple will hold its
“Purim and Pasta Happening”
at 6:15 p.m. Thursday, Mar. 3.
Dinner will include spaghetti
and hamentashen. There will be
a reading of the Megillah.
Reservations may be made by
calling the Temple Religious
School by February 27 at 873-
1734.
BETH JACOB
Beth Jacob Synagogue is spon
soring a Torah Study Retreat
from Friday, Mar. 11, through
Sunday brunch Mar. 13 at
Howard Johnson Motor Lodge,
Athens, Ga.
Faculty members will include
Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg, dean of
the graduate school of Ner Israel
Rabbinical College in Baltimore,
and Rabbi Emanuel Feldman of
Beth Jacob.
Study sessions will focus on
the theme “Love of God and
Love of Man." Formal lectures
and informal discussion will ex
amine differences between love
and justice, love and awe, and
how love towards God and fellow
man is expressed religiously.
Saturday night a musical
program will feature live Jewish
music and traditional Jewish
dancing.
The coat of the weekend is
$60.00 per person, ineluding all
meals and accommodations for
two nights. Call 633-0&51 or
write Beth Jacob Retreat'Com
mittee, 18$5 La Vista Rd., N.E.,
Jewish. And because it is
Jewish, it is aware that to lapse
into mediocrity is to invite
eclipse and even physical
destruction.
It is this compulsion that has
energised the society as a group
to rise to impressive heights of
creativity and ingenuity and
sometimes even to incredible
levels of daring and courage.
This is the sustaining element of
Israeli ethos, not the individual
aberrations that have oc
casionally pock-marked Zionism
from its earliest days to this.
What counts is that those
aberrations, for all their
ugliness and discomfort are spat
out. They are pushed aside by a
mainstream inner decency that
has always, in the end, deter
mined the direction of the
Jewish State.
ZtflONS
AJC
“Intermarriage: Suicide or
Salvation for Judaism?" is the
subject of a program to be
presented by the American
Jewish Committee (AJC) at 8
p.m. Monday, Mar. 7 at
Congregation Or VeShalom.
The program, a continuation
of the chapter’s intra-Jewish
dialogue theme begun last year,
will feature a discussion on this
issue by Rabbis Emanuel Feld
man, Congregation Beth Jacob,
and Alvin Sugarman, the Tem
ple. Moderator for the program
will be AJC executive committee
member Larry Bogart.
The program is open to the
public at no charge.
AJCC
The family activities com
mittee of the Atlanta Jewish
Community Center has planned
a winter ice skating party Sun
day, March 6, from 1-3 p.m. at
the Ice Land Skating Rink, 2490
Herodin Way, Smyrna.
Reservations must be made as
soon as possible with Ronnie
Grossman, 875-7881.
B’nai B’rith Woman
The Margaret Mitchell
Chapter of B’nai B’rith Women
will have a dinner party at the
North Side Women’s Club, 445
Pharr Road, Saturday, Mar. 5 at
8 p.m.
Reservations will be limited
to 40 couples, and can be made
.with Miriam Weinstein, 351-
2848, or Pam Golden, 851-3937.
Junior NC8Y
Junior National Council of
Synagogue Youth (NCSY) will
sponsor a Purim Carnival from
noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27,
at the Beth Jacob Synagogue.
It will feature such booths as
Haman and Sons Inc., House of
Torture, Vashti's House of Beau
ty and Esther’s Gift Shop.
At 2:80 p.m., then will be s
parade of costumes with prises
for best dress. At 8 p.ra., an
original musical, “Once Upon a
Hamentaschen, or, Tie True
Story -of Purim,” will be
presented by the Hebrew School.
For further information, call
/ u »y (1 111 p Vi 1 (X 1 11 111 | lllvl C *1 SS O f f . , • w*. 4 — - * - — *
i n^ver a time when renascent Atlanta, Georgia 30329. ^ ( Jftcob. 633-0551 •