On a recent Tuesday even-ing, 24 hours before the arrival of Yom HaShoah, I attended a symposium in Jerusalem on a subject both intriguing and urgent: "To Acknowledge the Suffering of the \’Other\’: Religious Obligation, Psychological Challenge."
Scholars will doubtless continue to debate Franklin Roosevelt\’s actions — and inaction — regarding the Holocaust. What did he know? When did he know it? Didn\’t he care, or did he really believe that the best and quickest way to help the Jews was, as he repeatedly argued, to win the war?
FDR died on April 12, 1945. I was 11 years old and heard the news on the radio in the bird store, where I was buying seed for my little canary.
It is a truth nearly universally acknowledged in Israel and the United States that we offered the Palestinians peace, and they chose bloodshed. More Jews and Arabs are killed almost daily. Clearly this situation is untenable. How to end it?
My worst Passover was my first in Los Angeles, more than half a lifetime ago. I had nowhere to go the first night, and the second night, a college friend took me to an institutional seder that was so sterile and faceless that I went home early and, paraphrasing Scarlett O\’Hara, vowed, \”As God is my witness, I\’ll never go without a seder again.\”
While there may be much truth to this claim, not only is there no left, there is no right either.
One wonders if Superman would find Middle East politics any easier.
In most countries, forecasts of no water to drink by the summer would command banner front-page headlines. Not in Israel.
Edwin Black\’s new book, \”IBM and the Holocaust\” (Crown) has generated significant interest. Full-page advertisements in the New York Times and other prestigious newspapers and interviews on the \”Today Show\” and other prominent television programs have all been part of its marketing program. Despite its many substantial problems, the work is important.
Israel\’s Jews did not vote for Ariel Sharon by a margin nearly unprecedented in any functioning democracy because they believe he has a magic solution to halt the intifada.
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