PURELY COMMENTARY
Learning, Rock Throwing
Continued from Page 2
44
FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 1989
the manner in which
criticism remains as a Jewish
policy mostly unrestricted.
There is an example of
freedom provided even to the
intifada. An Israel-Diaspora
Institution, functioning with
headquarters at Tel Aviv
University, is a barometer. It
publishes a magazine entitl-
ed Israeli Democracy. In its
current issue is included an
article entitled "The One
Good Thing That Has
Resulted From the Intifada,"
and it glorifies "intifada
women."
Acclaim is given to a new
role played by Arab women
under crisis while the
violence and brutalities that
have emerged in their ranks
is only alluded to.
Nevertheless, this pro-
gressivism among Arab
women is treated with glory.
Therefore the attention now
given it as another indication
of the fairness with which the
very negativism in Arabism
is treated with toleration in a
publishing tract on an impor-
tant Israeli campus.
This is another indication of
the hand of fairness and
justice stretched out Jewishly
to Arabs but ignored by the
latter.
But the basic point remains
that there are Israelis who
applaud the progress made
even by intifada women and
they therefore encourage it as
a sign of civilizing tendencies.
If out of it all will grow an
Arab readiness to participate
in across-the-table discus-
sions with Israel, the Israeli
lesson of communicating will
have been learned in the best
interests of peacemaking and
of strengthening the
democratic processes. ❑
Eastern. Europe
Continued from Page 2
between Bolshevism and
Zionism. He turned into a
virulent anti-Zionist, de-
nouncing Theodor Herzl,
Zionism's founder, as "a
repulsive figure" and
fighting against all forms
of Jewish "cultural par-
ticularism," such as the
ideas of the Bund party,
which tried bravely to pro-
mote socialism and defend
Yiddish culture at the
same time.
The old Bolshevik must
now be making permanent
revolutions in his grave.
His great-grandson, David
Axelrod, is not just a
Zionist. He lives in the
heart of the West Bank
town of Hebron, where a
group of Israeli extremists
wants to rebuilt the Jewish
David Ben Trotsky
N
OT much went right in the life of
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. Things
are going wrong still.
Like most Jews born in the late 1880s
in the "Pale of Settlement", the small
part of imperial Russia where Jews were
allowed to live, Trotsky had to choose
between Bolshevism and Zionism. He
turned into a virulent anti-Zionist, de-
nouncing Theodor Herzl, Zionism's
founder, as "a repulsive figure" and
fighting against all forms of Jewish "cul-
tural particularism", such as the ideas of
the Bund parry, which tried bravely to
promote socialism and defend Yiddish
culture at the same time.
The old Bolshevik must now be mak-
ing permanent revolutions in his grave.
His great-grandson, Mr David Axelrod,
is not just a Zionist. He lives in the heart
of the West Bank town of Hebron, where
community driven out a
few years after Palesti-
nians massacred 67 of their
number of 1929. Israeli
police arrested Axelrod on
June 11 for ignoring a sum-
mons to answer questions
about damage to Arab
property.
This item was accompanied
in the London Economist by
the accompanying cartoon.
In the June 23 issue of The
Jewish News appeared an
item explaining that Axelrod
had been barred from the
Arab section of the Cave of
Machpelah and other Arab
sites in Hebron.
Therefore the value of the
quotations from the Trotsky
essay in Davidowicz's The
Golden Tradition.
In the Trotsky essay there
is a reference to Trotsky's
debate with Vladimir
Medem, his socialist
counterpart.
Medem asked Trotsky
whether he admitted
"belonging to a nationality."
"You consider yourself, I sup-
pose, either a Russian or a
Jew?" asked Medem. "No,"
Trotsky respnded, "You are
wrong. I am a social democrat
and only that." In his essay
Trotsky wrote:
In the country as well as
in the town, I lived in petit
bourgeois environment
where the principal effort
was directed toward ac-
quisition. In this respect, I
cut myself off both from
the country of my early
childhood and from the
town of my youth. The in-
stinct of acquisition, the
petit bourgeois outlook
and habits of life — from
these I sailed away with a
mighty push, and I did so
never to return.
In the spheres of religion
and nationality, there was
no opposition between the
country and the town; on
the contrary, they com-
plemented one another in
various respects. In my
a group of Israeli extremists wants to re-
build the Jewish community driven out a
few years after Palestinians massacred 67
of their number in 1929. Israeli police ar-
rested Mr Axelrod on June 11th, for ig-
noring a summons to answer questions
about damage to Arab property.
father's family there was
no strict observance of
religion. At first, ap-
pearances were kept up
through sheer inertia; on
holy days my parents
journeyed to the
synagogue in the colony;
Mother abstained from
sewing on Saturdays, at
least within the sight of
others. But all this
ceremonial observance of
religion lessened as years
went on — as the children
grew up and prosperity of
the family increased.
Father did not believe in
God from his youth, and in
later years spoke openly
about it in front of Mother
and the children. Mother
preferred to avoid the sub-
ject, but when occasion re-
quired would raise her
The Econom ist
passing cars with sling-
shots, Kuttab says. Rabin
indicates 60 percent of all
stone-throwers in the ter-
ritories are children bet-
ween ages six and 15.
In February 1989, the
PLO and the uprising
leadership urged "every
child [to] carry the stone
and throw it at the oc-
cupier. The Molotov cock-
tail heroes of all ages must
burn a fire in the face of
the enemy and fight him
face-to-face." The threats
are serious. On June 6, an
Israeli patrol uncovered
large caches of knives,
clubs and iron bars hidden
in school-yards and
buildings. "We are
teaching these kids to be
active resisters," declared
Shehad Gharaybeh, an in-
tifada leader who
organizes the youths into
rebel units.
Despite the many
obstacles being placed in
the way of the reopening of
schools as a result of West
Bank violence, Jerusalem
remained determined to
find a way to do so. After
all, as Prime Minister Yit-
zhak Shamir stressed to a
visiting American delega-
tion last month: "It is in
our interest to have the
West Bank schools open
because we want a normal
life there."
The Israeli government
has once again shown its
good faith by reopening
the schools. The question
now is whether the PLO
and its allies will continue
to .insist on turning
children into cannon
fodder.
The exposure detailed here
should be treated with
respect. Knowing the facts is
a way of establishing the
much desired accord among
all factions in Israel and even-
tually in the entire Middle
East.
Much of what is transpiring
could find relief from tensions
if there could be an assurance
of Arab participation in
mutual considerations to help
resolve the difficulties. But
there is no response to such
invitations.
The Israeli freedom of ex-
pression is evidenced in the
unrestricted movements
among Israeli in constantly
demanding "peace" with an
exchange of views and across-
the-table discussions an ac-
cord would be possible. There
is much in the Jewish realm.
There is never a response to
invitations for cordial listen-
ing to each other from the
Arab sector.
The point in the granting of
free expressions by Israel is
eyes in prayer.
In my mother's family,
the Schpentzers, religion
was not observed at all, not
counting the old aunt, who
did not matter. My father,
however, wanted me to
know the Bible in the
original, this being one of
the marks of his parental
vanity, and therefore I took
private lessons in the Bible
from a very learned old
man in Odessa. My studies
lasted only a few months
and did little to confirm me
in the ancestral faith.
A suggestion of a double
meaning in the words of
my teacher, concerning
some text in the Bible
which we were studying,
prompted me to ask a
question which I worded
very cautiously and
diplomatically: "If we ac-
cept, as some do, that God
does not exist, how did the
world come to be?"
"Hm," muttered the
teacher, "but you can turn
this question against him
as well:' In his ingenious
way did the old man ex-
press himself. I realized
that the instructor in
religion did not believe in
God, and this set my mind
completely at rest.
All of the essays in this
volume are revelatory about
the personalities, their views,
the eras in which they lived.
Therefore Davidowicz's The
Golden Gradition is superb. ❑
Heritage Association
Helps Trace Roots
SIMON GRIVER
Special to The Jewish News
T
he Jewish Family Her-
itage Association is
helping thousands of
Jews around the world to
trace their family trees. In
helping so many Jews — both
young and old — to dig more
deeply into their roots, the
association is strengthening
their personal identities and
fostering a deeper understan-
ding of religious traditions,
and the tragedies and
triumphs of Jewish History.
Founded 10 years ago, the
Jewish Family Heritage
Association is essentially an
educational organization,
whose main aim is to show
the centrality of the family in
Jewish continuity. Both in
Israel and the Diaspora, the
association works through
schools, youth clubs com-
munity centers, senior
citizens homes and welfare
organizations. Relying on
volunteer teachers and
workers, curricula are compil-
ed for specific age and ethnic
groups.
Yehuda
Ben-David,
director-general of the
association, sees the bar mitz-
vah, particularly in the
Diaspora, as an ideal time for
both children and parents to
participate in a heritae
course.
"Unfortunately, a bar mitz-
vah in the Diaspora," he says,
means a big party, where
what counts for the boy is the
amount of checks he receives.
Often his Hebrew is too poor
to understand the portion he
reads from the Torah."
The association has compil-
ed curricula suitable for bar
mitzvah boys and bat mitzvah
girls in the Diaspora and
their parents. Volunteers are
brought to Israel and in-
structed on how to teach the
course, which includes infor-
mation on Jewish history and
the religious traditions of dif-
ferent communities.