SPECIAL COMMINTART

Quiet Earthquake

world when the 19-year-long division
hen confronted over a
of Jerusalem (with its consequent van-
flip-flop on policy, the
dalism of Jewish sites and the exclu-
late Israeli military and
sion of Jews from the Old City) was
lipir political leader Moshe
ended in 1967, probably always
Dayan is supposed to have said, "Only
thought that the very idea of a return
horses don't change their minds."
to partition was unlikely, if not
That's true. But for most people,
unthinkable.
switching positions linked to the core
Think again.
of their belief system is not as
While the government of
easy as it was for the intellec-
Israel and mainstream
tually flexible and ruthlessly
American Jewish organiza-
pragmatic Israeli war hero.
tions are still pooh-poohing
If you want to change a
the idea that any compro-
country's policy, the most
mise on Jerusalem is in the
important element is not the
offing, a not-inconsiderable
actual treaties or legislation
number of academics and
that put them into effect.
religious and political fig-
Long before the deed is actu-
ures have been hard at work
ally done, you must first
JONA THAN
preparing the way for just
change people's minds with,
S. T OBIN
such an event.
years of spadework by acade-
Spe cial to
mics and opinion writers, as
the Jew ish News
Think Tank
well as religious and political
Consider, for example,
thinkers.
Professor Joseph Ginat of the Univer-
So, for example, if Israel's leaders
sity of Haifa, the driving force behind
decided to make concessions to the
a new Center for Peace Studies and
Palestinian Authority about the status
Conflict Resolution. This is a joint
of Jerusalem — an issue on which
program of the University of Okla-
there is, supposedly, a wall-to-wall
homa, Bethlehem University, the
consensus that there can be no com-
Horizon for Studies and Research in
promise on the city's status as Israel's
Amman, Jordan, and the University of
united capital — it would take a long
Haifa.
time and a great deal of effort to chip
Ginat's group held a joint
away at this consensus.
Arab/American/Israeli conference on
Those who are old enough to
Jerusalem in January, which created a
remember the euphoria in the Jewish
document on the future of the city.
The professor, who served as an advis-
Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor
er on Arab affairs to Dayan and for-
of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia.

ried a paragraph about my 1950 par-
ticipation in "a nationwide speech
tournament."
Since then, I have received tele-
phone calls from former classmates
in Israel, New York, Flint, Los Ange-
les, Palm Beach and, of course,
greater Detroit. We spoke of our
wonderful days at Wayne State Uni-
versity, our great energy and ideal-
ism.
May I add a historical note: The
National Oratory Contest was spon-
sored by Delta Sigma Rho, the hon-
orary speech fraternity. Only men
could participate; however, Wayne
University entered me under the
name of Billy Provizer. My coach
told me to just get up and talk.
There was great amazement when a
young woman began to orate, when
a woman passionately spoke on

behalf of the infant among nations,
Israel.
I won and perhaps Israel won. We
opened the doors for future women
orators. Thank you for renewing won-
derful old memories for both myself
and classmates.
Betty Provizer Starkman

Bloomfield Hills

Many Levels
To Torah

In response to Eva Firestone Lipton's
letter, ("Who Wants To Be A Purim
Character?" March 15), the Talmud
teaches us 'Ain Hamikrah Yotzei Midei
Pshuto" ("The text of the Tanach does-
n't depart from the simple meaning").
This means that the simple meaning is
also true.

Related stories: beginning on page 6
Related editorial: page 38

mer Israeli prime ministers Shimon
Peres and Yitzhak Rabin, has been
energetically touting the results of his
group's work to various influential -
groups, assisted by the Israeli Con-
sulate.
Ginat says the "only solution" to
the future of Jerusalem is to partition
it. With the exception of the walled
Old City and Jewish neighborhoods
constructed since the city's unification
in 1967, all of eastern Jerusalem will
become the property of the new state
of Palestine. In his plan, negotiations
on the future of the Old City, the site
of the Western Wall and the Temple
Mount, will be put on hold for at least
five years.
In the meantime, the city will be
divided. It is, he says, the only way to
deny Jerusalem's Arabs Israeli citizen-
ship and thereby preserve Israel's Jew-
ish majority. And, though Ginat says
that real peace and normalization
between Arabs and Jews is at least two
generations away, he and his American
and Arab interlocutors think the divi-
sion of Jerusalem is a necessary first
step.

Unlonely Ranger

While it might once have been
shocking to hear such a proposal in
a mainstream American Jewish
forum from a speaker whose pres-
ence was welcomed by representa-

To understand the Torah only on
this simple level is a serious error.
Esther and Mordechai were great
prophets whose spiritual level is
incomprehensible to us.
We have a tendency (and I include
myself despite an extensive yeshiva
education) to view our Torah through
the eyes of "David and Goliath," The
Ten Commandments and other out-
standing influences.
The story of Purim is no beauty
contest. It is an incredibly deep
demonstration of HaShem's hashgacha
gratis (Divine supervision). The only
way to appreciate this is to study with
the classic commentators and
midrashim, many of which are avail-
able in English.
Michoel Kelmar

Baltimore, Md.

tives of the Israeli government, that
is no longer the case.
The point is, Ginat is far from
alone in his convictions. Nor is his the
only study being put forward to pro-
vide an intellectual rationale for divid-
ing Jerusalem.
The Forward newspaper reported
last month that an Arab/Israeli study,
funded by the U.S. government, as
well as by a foundation associated
with new United Jewish Communities
head Charles Bronfman and the Ford
Foundation and conducted under the
auspices of Harvard University, came
to a similar conclusion.
Indeed, the same newspaper
reported that at an Americans for
Peace Now-sponsored strategy ses-
sion on Capitol Hill in Washington,
Ellen Laipson, deputy chair of the
U.S. National Intelligence Council,
said that people who are against a
division of Jerusalem form an
"underclass" and "need to be
informed and educated." All of this
dovetails with the much-ballyhooed
recent petition for "sharing"
Jerusalem, signed by 300 rabbis, that
was sponsored by a left-wing group,
the Jewish Peace Lobby.
Even more importantly, sources in
Jerusalem have confirmed that life in
those sections of Jerusalem that Ginat
and others would officially hand over
to Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasser Arafat, is going on as if it were

EARTHQUAKE on page 42

Versatility
Of Yiddish

I was struck by Rabbi Yaacov Asher
Sinclair's mention of the Yiddish word
fargin, pronounced with a soft "g," the
meaning of which, as he says, is "the
ability to be happy for the success and
happiness of others" ("From Riches To
Rabbinate," March 17).
Obviously, there is no equivalent
of this uniquely Yiddish word in
English — a reason for the lengthy
explanation — nor in Hebrew,
whence many Yiddish words derive.
This being the case, modern Hebrew
borrowed this word from Yiddish
and adopted the verb rfargen to far-
gin, as well as the noun pirgun (the
"pey" supplants the "fey" because of
LETTERS on page 42

3/24
2000

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