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simply tossing in sun-dried toma-
toes into just about everything
except chocolate cake.
"I like robust tastes," she said,
"like sun-dried tomatoes and co-
riander."
Her book reflects Ms. Nathan's
interest in eating right — which
means sitting down to a home-
cooked meal and turning the TV
off.
"We should eat as a family, not
on the run and not standing up,"
she said.
She remembers helping her
own mother cook (young Joan's
job was putting the pies in the
oven), then later preparing dish-
es for foreign journalists while
she worked for Jerusalem May-
or Teddy Kollek, which is how she
got started writing cookbooks.
"Cooking is a kind of ritual of
life," she said. "It's the whole
process — mixing the batter then
braiding the bread and setting
the table. Besides, it's fun."
Ms. Nathan, who also writes
for Food Arts and Gourmet mag-
azines, recently returned from a
visit to Morocco, where "in every
decent home you can find a 25-
kilo sack of flour, which family
members use to make bread
that's baked in a communal oven.
"And do you know what they
asked me?"she said. 'Is it true
that in America everything you
eat comes prepared in boxes?"
odger Kamenetz did not go
to India looking for spiri-
tuality. He went as a jour-
nalist.
What he experienced, though,
was a kind of a spiritual journey
that helped him look at his own
life and religion.
Mr. Kamenetz, a poet and pro-
fessor of English at Louisiana
State University, accompanied
eight Jewish rabbis and scholars
on a visit with the Dalai Lama.
The Tibetan Buddhist leader had
requested the meeting, with one
of his main questions being how
the Jewish community had sur-
vived for so many years without
an established homeland.
(The Chinese Army occupied
Tibet in 1950, and the Dalai
Lama has lived in exile in
Dharamsala, India, since 1959.)
The visiting group comprised
an unusual collection of Jewish
leaders, from mystic Rabbi Zal-
man Schachter-Shalomi to Or-
thodox Rabbi Irving Greenberg.
In addition to meetings with the
Dalai Lama and other Buddhist
monks, the group had prayer ses-
sions and Torah study and "live-
ly debates," Mr. Kamenetz said.
Mr. Kamenetz, who writes of
the experience in The Jew in the
R
Lotus: A Poet's Rediscovery of
Jewish Identity in Buddhist In-
dia, said he and the others stayed
in a cottage where the Dalai
Lama's mother had once lived.
Made of stone, it was perched on
a hillside "with monkeys and
magpies all around."
Discussions with the Bud-
dhists most often focused on sur-
vival, with each Jewish
participant giving a different in-
sight.
Rabbi Greenberg told the Dalai
Lama that since the destruction
of the Temple, "the responsibili-
ty for continuity has been given
to every Jew." Each Jew, he said,
is obligated to act and to remem-
ber — the Land of Israel, histo-
ry, tradition.
"Now I feel I have the secret of
Jewish survival," the Dalai Lama
said. "It is always to remind."
Rodger Kamenetr
Mr. Kamenetz described the
Dalai Lama as "an extraordinary
presence," a man with "a quiet
mind, of immense intelligence
and concentration." He carefully
chooses his words, referring to the
Chinese only as "the so-called en-
emy."
In Buddhism, Mr. Kamenetz
explained, "anger is a poison of
the mind."
Mr. Kamenetz, who also met
up with longtime Dalai Lama
supporter and actor Richard Gene
("he's shorter than I thought"),
described himself as a secularist.
He said he learned from the
meetings that "there are many
ways to be a Jew: family, culture,
religion — there is no one an-
swer."
But he did return from the
meetings with a commitment to
"deepen my own sense of Jewish
spiritual practice," he said. He
hopes to incorporate into his own
life the Tibetan understanding of
religion as "a spiritual path."
anan. Ashrawi insisted, ab-
solutely insisted, that she
did not want a book writ-
ten on her life. "No," she
firmly told journalist Barbara
Victor. "I don't want it."
She then proceeded to invited
Ms. Victor into her home, to
speak for 15 months on taped in-
terviews and to hand over nu-
merous family photos.
Ms. Victor, author ofA Voice of
Reason: Hanan Ashrawi and
Peace in the Middle East, said she
got the idea for a book after writ-
ing an article in Femme ("the
French version of Vanity Fair")
about the Palestinian leader.
From the outset, she said, Ms.
Ashrawi "assumed that I was
dumb. To her, I was a journalist
and all journalists are there to be
manipulated."
Ms. Victor had for years cov-
ered the Middle East, for U.S.
News and World Report and oth-
er publications. Finding
sources to discuss Ms.
Ashrawi was not difficult,
she said. "I had interviews
every night that lasted until
1 or 2 in the morning."
Just about everyone, Is-
raeli and Palestinian, had
something to say about the
former teacher (and yes, she
did have a relationship with
news anchor Peter Jennings,
years ago when she was sin-
gle and a student).
They agree she is intelli-
gent, well-spoken and am-
bitious. At the same time,
she is described as cold, a
snob, and, as a Christian, a
woman and part of a well-to-
do family, something of an
anomaly among the Pales-
tinians.
Ms. Ashrawi's rise to fame
received a major boost when
she appeared on "Nightline."
Among her fans were former Sec-
retary of State James Baker III,
who saw her as an excellent
spokesman to deliver the Pales-
tinians' story to Americans.
Singlehandedly, she changed
the image of a Palestinian as "a
terrorist wearing a kaffiah to an
intellectual wearing a designer
scarf," Ms. Victor said.
Ms. Victor even credits Hanan
Ashrawi with PLO Chairman
Yassir Arafat receiving the No-
bel Peace Prize. "She was the rea-
son he got to the White House
lawn," she said.
These days, Ms. Ashrawi is
writing a book and smoking. "She
subsists on cigarettes and choco-
lates," Ms. Victor said. "Her hus-
band, who is a lovely man, does
all the housework" Ms. Ashrawi's
idea of cooking is "turning on the
microwave."
She's also "waiting for the dust
to settle," in the new Palestinian
entity, Ms. Victor said "I predict
she'll be appointed minister of in-
formation."
"She has been very successful,"
she added. "She had a job
to do and she did it. And in that
way she was 100 percent effec-
tive." El
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