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Bernard Alain exhibit
"Moses Receiving the Law,” middle panel, and
scenes depicting the Exodus, are parts of a stained-
glass triptych executed by Bernard Alain from the
paintings of Shalom of Safed, currently on exhibit at
New York’s Jewish Museum.
Double dilemma:.
Being an American and
being a Jew at same time
(The following is excerpted from
a talk given recently by Prof.
Yehuda Blum, Israeli ambassador
to the United Nations, at the annual
convention of the American
Jewish Press Association in New
York City. —Editor)
by Yehuda Blum
The dilemma of American Jews
is different from that of other
Diaspora communities in Jewish
history—different, for example,
from the Jewish communities of
Europe before World War II
which had no doubt as to their
separateness from the society
around them.
Certainly that sense of
separateness was not exclusively of
their own making. It was also
inflicted and imposed upon them
often in the most brutal fashion.
To escape from the discrimination
that this distinctiveness entailed
generally meant to convert, to
assimilate totally, in a word — to
abandon one’s Jewishness.
By contrast, American Jews
have no hesitation in claiming the
full rights of citizens in the society
at large, while at the same time
maintaining their right to remain
separate.
You live in a democratic system,
one that respects human rights,
that makes discrimination on the
basis of race and religion illegal,
and demands the strictest
separation of Church and State.
You claim those rights for
yourselves as vigorously as do
other ethnic groups, and you
demand and expect full and equal
acceptance within the general
social institutions of American
society while rejecting any state
interference in your own particular
community.
I know that I am stating the
obvious. But, in the long
perspective of Jewish history, that
is a unique and unusual situation.
For while the problem of
assimilation has long existed, from
the earliest days in Canaan, through
the Babylonian exile to
Enlightenment Germany in the
19th century, the coexistence of
these two parallel aspirations—to
be fully accepted and to maintain a
corporate and collective Jewish
spirit at the same time—this has
never been posed as forcefully as in
the United States of America
today.
Philosophically, of course, it is
possible to resolve the dilemma,
and there is no dearth of profound
and intelligent attempts to do so by
Jewish writers, rabbis and
philosophers. But the very fact that
there is no single problem that has
more exercised the minds of
Jewish writers in this country
indicates that a deep sense of
unease remains. It may well be
possible to solve the problem
See Dilemma, page 21.
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I VOL I V Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, August 3, 1979 31 ►
U.N. debate postpom
due to ‘behind-scene~
U.S. and PLO contacts?
by Helen Silver
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The
State Department declined to
elaborate on the reasons why the
United States agreed to the post
ponement of a UN Security Coun
cil debate on Palestinian rights and
a related resolution, inspired by
the Palestine Liberation Organi
zation, which had been scheduled
for a vote this week.
“The U.S. took its own position
and our policy in any case, on deal
ing with the PLO remains
unchanged,” the Department’s
chief spokesman Hodding Carter
said. He added, “Our position on
the specifics will be made public in
the course of the debate when it
resumes.”
The Security Council debate
was postponed until Aug. 23 with
the agreement of the U.S., the PLO
and Kuwait which sponsored the
resolution urging the Security
Council to support the right of the
Palestinian people to self-deter
mination. Diplomatic sources at
the UN told the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency Monday that
the unusual cooperation between
the U.S. and the PLO on that
matter was the result of behind-
the-scenes contacts between U.S.
officials and the PLO.
However, Carter reiterated
Tuesday that “We are not going to
consider any change in our policy
which has to do with our
willingness to discuss matters with
by David Friedman
NEW YORK (JTA)—A dispute
at the-University of Texas in
Austin between the school's
history department and its Center
for Middle Eastern Studies over
the appointment of an Israeli-born
historian has been settled with the
Israeli joining the university’s
faculty for the 1980 spring term, the
American Jewish Committee
reported.
Sheba Mittelman, a member of
the AJCommittee’s special
the PLO.” He said, “We continue
to hope that the Palestinians will
take part in the peace process; we
must have such participation.” The
U.S., he said, does discuss such
matters with the Palestinians
through its consulates and
representatives and obtains their
See PLO Contacts, page 21.
programs department, said that
Abraham Marcus, a 31-year-old
Tel Aviv University graduate now
completing work on a doctorate at
Columbia University, will join the
university’s history faculty and will
be listed in the catalogue of the
Mideast Center. She said that
Marcus, whose field is modern
Arab history, is satisfied with the
outcome and will go to Austin in
January.
The dispute began when the
history department, which was
See U of Texas, page 21.
University of Texas
resolves ‘prof scoff’
Yehud-Atlanta:
special relation
Gidi, Jonathan, Joshua and David Sibirsky, in their
sukka in Yehud, Israel. The Sibirsky family made aliyah
nine years ago A letter from Jonathan and more about
Yehud’s special relationship with Atlanta on page four.