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OUTSTANDING LUCITE DESIGNS
PROVIDING A FOUNDATION ON WHICH ISRAEL BUILDS
The Jewish National Fund announces
v otATioN
\S>
TO ISRAEL 0
APRIL 10-APRIL 24
GROUP WILL BE ESCORTED BY
ALLEN & JACKIE MENUCK
• Round trip fare from Detroit - Tel Aviv - Detroit
•
•
•
•
•
•
Accommodations for 13 nights • 5 star deluxe hotels
Briefings by Israeli leadership
Golfing at the Caesaria Golf Course
Full Israeli Breakfast • Four Complimentary Dinners
8 days sightseeing • Visit to an Israeli Air Force Base
Much more, plus a special 40th anniversary celebration!
Limited space available
Make your inquiries and
reservations now.
7N110
18877 W. TEN MILE ROAD
SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN 48075
CELEBRATING THE
18
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1987
FOCUS
ILVVISH
11A11011AL
557-6644
40th ANNIVERSARY OF ISRAEL
JE
Diaspora's Viability
Debated At Conference
ANDREW SILOW CARROLL
N
ew York — Rephras-
ing a question put to
American and Israeli
scholars at a two-day con-
ference held recently in New
York, author Charles Silber-
man quoted the 137th Psalm:
"How do I sing the Lord's
song in a foreign land?"
Quite well, answered the
author of last year's con-
troversial A Certain People,
which argued that the
American Jewish community
has succeeded — in terms of
spiritual health and social
and political acceptance — as
no Diaspora community has
succeeded before.
Not surprisingly, Israeli
political scientist Shlomo
Avineri had a very different
answer to the same question.
"Off-key" best summarizes
the response of the author of
an equally controversial
analysis of American Jewry.
Last spring, Avineri's "open
letter" in the Jerusalem Post,
written at the height of the
Jonathan Pollard spy case, ac-
cused American Jews of hav-
ing a "galut mentality" as
they "cringed in fear" of
charges of dual loyalty.
Thus the battle lines were
drawn, in a meeting spon-
sored by the B'nai Zion frater-
nal order and entitled "The
Coming of Age of American
Jewry — A Zionist Perspec-
tive?'
The conference, held Dec.
1-2, could as easily have been
called "The Coming of Age of
- Zionism — An American
Perspective," since the
speakers spent as much time
debating the centrality of
Israel as they did the vitality
of the Diaspora.
American participants in-
cluded Silberman, former
Brandeis University
Chancellor Abram Sachar
and sociologist Steven A.
Cohen. The Israeli speakers
were Avineri, novelist Amos
Oz and Bar-Ilan University
Chancellor Rabbi Emanuel
Rackman.
Speaking at the Tuesday
morning session on "Is
America a Galut?", Silber-
man drew on theological and
historical precedents to argue
that Diaspora Jewry is as
essential a component of
Judaism as is the Jewish
state.
At the heart of the religion,
he said, is the idea of dialec-
tic and paradox. Conflict not
only characterizes the rela-
tionship between Israel and
Charles Silberman: Dialectic and
paradox.
Diaspora Jewry, he argued,
but provides the very ra-
tionale for the continued ex-
istence of the Diaspora side-
by-side with the Jewish state.
"The genius of our tradition
is that these tensions are
always perpetuated, never
resolved," said Silberman.
"Judaism is not an either/or
religion, but requires both
sides of the dialectic."
Silberman then quoted the
morning blessing recited by
religious jews, in which God is
blessed for creating in human
beings "many passages and
vessels," organs and ducts, all
of which perform in in-
separable harmony.
A new blessing is needed,
said Silberman, to celebrate
"the interconnectedne.ss of
the Jewish national body, the
interdependence of Israel and
the Diaspora. We need each
other, not to support Israel's
military, not to make
American Jews feel Jewish,
but because we are of the
same flesh."
Responding to Silberman,
Avineri did not deny the in-
terconnectedness of the
Israeli and world Jewish com-
munities, but he did say that
the perception of need may
not be equal between the two.
Avineri maintained that
whereas Diaspora Jewry
relies on support of Israel to
unify its usually divided con-
stituency, Israel is not as
dependent on the largess of
world Jewry as is often
believed.
The former director-general
of Israel's Foreign Ministry
drew gasps from the audience
when he compared Israel's
annual budget — $25 billion
— with the $3 billion it
receives in American foreign
aid and the three-quarters of
a billion dollars it receives
Continued on Page 20