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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. The Souther 1 X ^ O < rv Israelite o The Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry ') if Our 55th Year „ ^ ^ 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.