Refuseniks The Jews of Hope: The Plight of Soviet Jewry Today Martin Gilbert Macmillan £8.95 The Yugoslav dissident socialist, Milovan Djilas, once commented that since they are pervaded by the spirit of internationalism, the Jews are doomed to be persecuted whenever a regime isolates itself. Martin Gilbert’s book shows that this dictum remains unchanged. Under … Read more
“If Only My People: Zionism in My life”‘ by Immanuel Jakobovits published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson The title ‘Rabbi’ is conventionally understood to be the Hebrew translation for teacher. Yet originally rabbis were expounders and interpreters of Judaism. Their role became institutionalised in the Middle Ages through absorbing a necessary teaching function as spiritual heads … Read more
As we look out on the human condition, our consciences cannot be clean. If they are clean, then it is because we do not are them enough. It is not inevitable that we march in hostile and separate hosts into the common abyss. There is another possibility of an ordered world, illuminated by reason, governed … Read more
“507- this is the number of soldiers who have been killed in the war in Lebanon until now. THE PRICE HAS BEEN TOO HIGH.” UNTIL JUST the other day, this message on a small placard greeted all who passed by the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem. Every few days, the cardboard counter was moved around … Read more
Propaganda and Nationalism in Wartime Russia By Shimon Redlich (Columbia University Press, 1982, $26.00) NINETEEN EIGHTY THREE marks the fortieth anniversary of the visit of Solomon Mikhoels and Itsik Fefer to this country. The publication of Shimon Redlich’s book on the saga of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) is thus timely and important. In 1943, … Read more
The name of Raoul Wallenberg today evokes deep emotions in the hearts of many people. For those who know even the barest details of his courageous exploits in wartime Budapest, now some thirty eight years ago, he is held in almost reverential respect. Hasidei umot ha-olam – truly a Righteous Gentile. And yet only ten … Read more
“Some day the demand for disarmament by hundreds of millions will, I hope, be so universal and so insistent that no man, no nation can withstand it.” -President Dwight D. Eisenhower A CONTROVERSY which often pervades discussion both here and abroad is the relationship between issues which defend Jewish group interests and those which espouse … Read more
We will wait for months and years. We will wait all our lives if necessary, but we will not renounce our faith or our hopes. We believe: our prayers have reached God. We know: our appeals will reach people. For we are asking: let us go to the land of our forefathers. WHEN GOLDA MEIR … Read more
Ten years after the Leningrad Trial : Part 2 the Plot is Foiled Shortly after the Six-Day War, in. the groundswell of pro-Zionist activity among Russian Jews, Mark Dymshitz, a former pilot, hit on the idea of taking an aircraft and, with other Jewish activists, escaping from the USSR. H enlisted the help of Hillel … Read more
Since the Revolution, there have always been Soviet Jews wishing to repatriate to Israel. The trauma of the Holocaust spiritually created small groups of young assimilated Jews blindly searching for an explanation. The establishment of the state of Israel provided an interpretation and a visible goal. Such clandestine groups evolved with the political thaw that … Read more