PURELY COMMENTARY
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor Emeritus
Ecumenists: Striving For High Standards
F
rom the earliest years
of this century, with the
emergence of religious
bias that kept demanding
serious attention among all
faiths and racial and national
origins, there was a begging
for good will. It is a reminder
of what had been called the
Good Will Movement. It was
an admission of a great need.
There was never a boasting
that it had been attained.
But such ideas kept
developing, even on the
smallest scales.
Now we have reason to
believe that we are on the
road to the cause we call
ecumenism.
The great value of it is that
it is not limited. Its basic root
is in the interfaith aspect. It
commences with the rejection
of anything that is religious-
ly intolerant. It continues
with condemnation of racial
injustice. In genuine,
ecumenism there can also be
the aim of achieving notable
relationships between na-
tions. An approach to such an
ideal may surely be found in
the spiritual guidelines ad-
vocated and taught by the
eminent Nobel Laureate Elie
Wiesel as well as by a move-
ment striving for good will in
the Middle East organized
and activitated under his
name.
The Wiesel share of the ad-
vancement of these outlined
creative means receives in-
spiration in an important
volume. Elie Wiesel: Between
Memory and Hope, (New York
University Press). The editing
by Dr. Carol Rittner sup-
plements the consideration of
the ecumenism under
discussion.
Then there is the Elie
Wiesel Foundation for
Humanity, headquartered in
New York. Dr. Carol Rittner
is director of the movement
with which the Wiesel role
now attains extraordinary at-
tention in ecumenism.
Elie Wiesel, who holds a
professorial position in
Elie Wiesel
Boston University, has a most
valuable coordinator in Dr.
Rittner. Dr. Rittner establish-
ed an important record of ser-
vices in interfaith activities
and as a supporter and
defender of Israel. She lec-
tures and publishes exten-
sively in behalf of these tasks.
She earns gratitude for in-
numerable ecumenical
achievements, and her
numerous visits to Israel
served the cause well in her
role as a Christian Zionist.
That is why linking her name
with the Elie Wiesel Founda-
tion is important because she
labored with him in the re-
cent International Con-
ference on Education Against
Hate held in Haifa. Collec-
tively these are contributions
toward the cause that spell
advancement in humanism
which is treated here as
ecumenism.
It is on the Wiesel per-
sonality theme that we de-
pend again upon Dr. Rittner.
In her personal tribute to her
associate she defines his role
by stating:
For more than 30 years,
Elie Wiesel has wrestled
with his haunting
memories of the
Holocaust: "How can we
speak of it? How can we
not speak of it?" Prodded
by his conscience to tell the
story, Wiesel, the survivor-
witness, struggles with
Wiesel, the writer-witness,
to reveal the enormity of
the nightmare — without
betraying the dead. Begin-
ning with his autobio-
graphical memoir, Night,
each of his books reflects
the battle between silence
and revelation that
animates his work.
There is added appreciation
of Dr. Wiesel when she
asserts, "Wiesel's goal is
always the same: to invoke
memories as a shield for the
future, to create a more
human and moral world
where people are not victims
and children no longer starve
or have to run in fear."
This is a remarkable in-
troduction in the book. His in-
itial essay, "The Solitude of
God" and the interview with
him by Dr. Rittner are
especially memorable.
The tributes assembled are
James Lyons
by distinguished theologians,
Christians and Jews. Each is
an affirmation of faith and
would serve as a topic for
review.
Wiesel indicates his
Chasidic devotions, his affir-
mations of faith, especially in
his strong adherencd to the
masters of Chasidism and
their teachings.
In his discussion of solitude
as an anguishing problem,
Wiesel takes us back to the
recent debate over "The
dispute with God," resulting
from the Holocaust tragedies.
Here is a Wiesel view that
raises questions while affirm-
ing faith:
Solitude. Does there exist
a more anguishing pro-
blem for human beings, for
the Creator, for the Jew? At
once necessary and
crushing, solitude both af-
firms me and rejects me:
what would I be without it,
what would become of me
if it were my only pro-
spect? Created in the im-
age of God, human beings
are like God, alone. And
yet human beings can
hope, they must hope.
Human beings can rise,
they must rise, go beyond
themselves to merge with
or recover themselves in
God. God alone, in fact, is
condemned to eternal
solitude. Only God is truly,
irreducibly alone.
This is a subject of pas-
sionate interest to the
Chasidic and mystical
masters. For them, God is
often to be pitied. Yes, God
inspires not only love and
piety, justice and respect,
but also compassion and
pity.
This is like an echo of the
appeal to the Almighty by the
18th Century Chasidic sage
Lavy Itzhak of Berdichev.
The Haifa seminar was a
joint effort of Elie Wiesel and
Dr. Rittner.
More than 40 scholars and
humanists from ten countries
assembled in Haifa, Israel, on
June 3 under the organiza-
tional leadership of the Elie
Wiesel Foundation for
Humanities for consideration
of the theme Education
Against Hate: An Imperative
for our Time. The purpose of
the conference retained these
aspirations:
The purpose of the con-
Continued on Page 42
One Big Birthday Party For Abba Eban
A
bba Eban was given a
birthday party at a
dinner at the United
Nations in New York on June
6 to mark belatedly his 75th
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Vol. WWI No. 20 July 13, 1990
2
FRIDAY, JULY 13, 1990
birthday. Henry Kissinger
engineered it.
On his actual birthday the
celebration was arranged in
Jerusalem by President
Chaim Herzog in February.
There were numerous other
parties. Why not? Eban at-
tended so many functions in
honor of fellow Jews as well as
non-Jews, each owed him a
party.
This leads us to the asser-
tion, as a reminder to Israel
and world Jewry, that there
are many debts due him for
his services. Therefore, we
must extend birthday
greetings to him from the
Jewish nation in Israel and
fellow Jews everywhere. It is
an assertion that all Jews feel
themselves as attendees at a
single national affair
remembering that he has in-
spired devotion and has
always been the leader, since
his assumption of leadership
as a very young man half a
In millions of
homes he is
revered with
gratitude for his
accomplishments.
century ago.
Only the select could expect
invitations from Herzog and
Kissinger to join in honoring
Eban. But in the missions of
homes where he is revered
with gratitude for his ac-
complishments, the very
thought of Eban at 75 evokes
a party spirit creating the
community of millions of
admirers.
Eban, as a leader, unmatch-
ed in oratory, is famous as
linguist and historian. A
master of Hebrew as well as
English, he is equally adept
in Arabic. This has added to
his mastery in confronting
the Arab antagonists at the
United Nations and in many
diplomatic disputes.
Volumes dealing with Israel
and Jewish history will
always be compulsory
reading. His about to be com-
pleted history of Israel, also to
be televised globally, is eager-
ly awaited.
This is, therefore, another
addition, in behalf of our corn-
Abba Eban
munity, to the multiple
greetings to Abba Eban on
his 75th birthday. 11