PURELY COMMENTARY
The Constitution And Our Liberties
Continued from Page 2
munities of free citizens, and in-
itiated us into the grand mass of
legislative mechanism. By exam-
ple you have taught us to endure
the ravages of war with manly
fortitude, and to enjoy the bless-
ings of peace with reverence to
the Deity, and benignity and
love to our fellow-creatures .. .
Levi Sheftal,
President in behalf of
the Hebrew-Congregation
To the Hebrew-Congregation
of the City of Savannah
Gentlemen,
I thank you with great
sincerity for your congratula-
tions on my appointment to the
office, which I have the honor to
hold by the unanimous choice of
my fellow-citizens: and especial-
ly for the expressions which you
are pleased to use in testifying
the confidence that is reposed in
me by your congregation.
As the delay which has
naturally intervened between
my election and your address
has afforded an opportunity for
appreciating the merits of the
federal government, and for
communicating your sentiments
of its administration — I have
rather to express my satisfaction
than regret at a circumstance,
which demonstrates (upon ex-
periment) your attachment to
the former as well as approba-
tion of the latter.
I rejoice that a spirit of
liberality and philanthropy is
much more prevalent than it
formerly was among the
enlightened nations of the earth;
and that your brethren will
benefit thereby in proportion as
it shall become still more exten-
sive. Happily the people of the
United States of America have,
in many instances, exhibited ex-
amples worthy of imitation —
the salutary influence of which
will doubtless extend much far-
ther, if gratefully enjoying those
blessings of peace which (under
favor of Heaven) have been ob-
tained by fortitude in war, they
shall conduct themselves with
reverence to the Deity, and
charity towards their
fellow-creatures.
May the same wonder-
working Deity, who long since
delivering the Hebrews from
their Egyptian Oppressors
planted them in the promised
land — whose providential agen-
cy has lately been conspicuous
in establishing these United
States as an independent nation
— still continue to water them
with the dews of Heaven and to
make the inhabitants of every
denomination participate in the
temporal and spiritual blessings
of that people whose God is
Jehovah.
G. Washington
The introduction to a democratic
way of life is apparent in the Constitu-
tion, in the Bill of Rights. We celebrate
the bicentennial as a festival cementing
36
FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1987
George Washington
the nation with the highest libertarian
ideals. We rejoice on the occasion by
paying respect to the Founding Fathers,
by paying honor to the name George
Washington and by exchanging with all
in the nation a Mazal Too, in whatever
language people may utter the salute.
Extremism
Continued from Page 2
newspapers — lots," Mr. Tsimhe
said nervously, looking over his
shoulder. "But there were
threats."
"They told me it would be
better if I didn't sell
newspapers," he added. "They
said it would be better if I sold
felafels."
Down the street in this Tel
Aviv suburb, a center for the
deeply religious Jews generally
referred to here as the "ultra-
Orthodox," Leah and David
Green's newspaper kiosk also
did a brisk business selling dai-
ly Israeli newspapers — before
the bombing.
They still sell secular papers,
but quietly, through the
back door, with the stealth that
a small-town American
drugstore might use to sell
Playboy or Penthouse.
Mr. Tsimhe and the Greens,
who are all Zionist religious
Jews, had their shops damaged
by a group of deeply Orthodox
Jews who reject the modern
state of Israel, from its army to
its newspapers. They have
either bombed or intimidated
virtually every news seller in
Bnei Brak into removing all dai-
ly Israeli papers from their
shelves.
The Bnei Brak newspaper
war is symptomatic of a national
religious power struggle under-
way in Israel. At stake is who
will determine the Jewish
religious character of Israel.
Will it be the non-Zionist
ultra-Orthodox, who do not see
in the reborn state an event of
major religious significance and
who believe instead that a
Jewish state will be worth
celebrating only after the
Messiah comes and the rule of
Jewish law is total? They make
up about five percent of the
population.
Or will it be those Zionist Or-
thodox Jews who see in Israel's
creation an important religious
event and believe that Judaism,
when reinterpreted for the 20th
century, can flourish in a
modern state? These Jews make
up about 15 percent of the
population.
If recent trends are any in-
dication, religious and political
power among Israel's strictly
observant Jews is gravitating to
the non-Zionist minority, while
the Zionists are increasingly on
the defensive. If this trend con-
tinues, it will have a major effect
on Israeli society and on Israel's
relations with Jews overseas.
The description of what is occurring
was described above as sending a chill
through our bones. It should serve as a
call to action by the ethically-coded
Jews everywhere to prevent a continua-
tion of the described fanaticism.
When a group described as tanta-
mount to an Israeli fundamentalism ex-
erts its power to an extent of placing a
ban upon reading newspapers not of
their choosing, the threat is to the mind
as well as the heart of the Jewish peo-
ple. It forbids knowledge of what is hap-
pening in the lives of their followers. It
orders children to be ignorant about
their neighborhoods and the people liv-
ing near them.
The extent of such bigotries is hor-
rifying. It keeps arousing resentment.
It inspires warnings of a dangerously
threatening situation for Israel. It caus-
ed an eminent Israeli scholar to express
his concern, as an admonition to all
Jews, quoted as follows in the important
Thomas Friedman analysis of the ex-
isting ultra-Orthodox fundamentalism:
"The only interest Labor and
Likud have in religion is which
rabbi can deliver to them the
most votes to stay in power," said
David Hartman, the modern Or-
thodox Israeli philosopher.
"But once these ultra-
Orthodox have finished off the
religious Zionists, they are going
to take on the non-religious
Zionists — that is, Labor and
Likud — and make this state an
uninhabitable place," he added.
"Unless the modern Zionists
wake up and assume respon-
sibility for articulating a view of
Judaism that can live with the
modern world, they will be dig-
ging their own grave," Hartman
said. "They will be left with a
Judaism that repudiates moder-
nity and will, in the end, under-
mine the whole Zionist structure
that has been built here."
How can Israel be rescued from the
threatened calamity? Is it possible that
the media in Israel, who are always
treated as if they possess great power,
are helpless in this emerging crisis?
Else, why no action from the journalists
and the media broadcasters?
Is it possible that the press, like the
political parties vying for power, are
frightened by the threats from the ex-
treme Orthodox who seem determined
to attain control in Israel?
A serious duty evolves. It makes
demands upon all who are determined
that Israel be high-leveled ethically,
that the democratic way of life is its
claim to recognition, that the im-
moralities emanating from fanaticism
must never be condoned.
There must be a demand upon the
press, in Israel and the Diaspora, total-
ly to reject the Orthodox-fulminated
bigotries.
Diaspora Jewry is obligated to ask
its Israel brethren to outlaw the hate--
spreaders in our ranks.
There are strong links between the
Sephardim in this country with the
counterpart in Israel. The latter owe it
to the entire People Israel to become a
force condemning and rejecting the ex-
tremists who threaten the very ex-
istence of Israel in its immorally in-
hi m an anti-Jewish and anti-democratic
principles.
The Ashkenazic communities must
act similarly to end the bigoted threats.
It is the combined public opinion ac-
tion that may end the calamitous
threats to Jewish decency.
United action may provide the
vitally-needed solution to a grave pro-
blem. It must be exerted without affec-
ting our duty not to interrupt support
and encouragement to all of Israel's
basic and democratic forms.
Let there be proper, immediate
planning for such united action.
Pressing Problem:
Need For Solution
The territorial problem remains a
serious issue for Israel. The Jordanian
border area, the always referred to West
Bank, continues a cause for hatred bet-
ween Jews and Arabs, a challenge to
Israel to concede the disputed territory.
The serious division in Jewish
ranks is difficult to resolve. Its con-
tinued tension gains added seriousness
on a New York Times Sunday Magazine
article by Thomas Friedman, front-
paged under the heading "My
Neighbor, My Enemy." The article is as
frightening as the headline.
Friedman doesn't preach often. He
is informative, and his reports to his
newspaper are revealing as well as
challenging. But in this one, portraying
"My Neighbor, My Enemy," he offers
this advice:
The more Israelis or Palesti-
nians cling to their exclusive
claims to this land, the more
they must deny the righteous-
ness of the other's claim. Only
by contracting their demands to
the point where the other is
allowed his own space and his
own national dignity will each
side really be able to stretch out,
relax, and truly be at home. As
long as your neighbor is your
enemy, your house will never be
a home — it must be a fortress.
Until that happens, no mat-
ter what they call this land,
Palestine or Greater Israel,