Embracing Diaspora
The old-time Zionist religion had it that the only good Diaspora Jew was the one who made aliyah and settled in the ancestral land.
The old-time Zionist religion had it that the only good Diaspora Jew was the one who made aliyah and settled in the ancestral land.
Rabbi Michael Melchior of Jerusalem has one heck of a job ahead of him.
Newly appointed to Ehud Barak\’s Cabinet, he\’s got the unenviable assignment of trying to make Jews get along with each other.
As we approach the new millennium, we often discuss the unity of the Jewish people, seeking those aspects of Jewish life that will hold our diverse communal elements together after the year 2000. Rabbi Joseph Soleveitchek has referred to our Jewish covenant as including our shared history, shared suffering, shared responsibility and shared action.
As Israel nears its 50th birthday, events have shifted attentionaway from the stalled peace talks. What dominates the headlines nowis the warlike rhetoric among Jewish factions — both within Israeland in the Diaspora — as they clash over the issue of religiouspluralism.
Last weekend, I was at a gathering of maybe 80 people, brought together to listen to a prominent Israeli intellectual who proceeded to dazzle us with his accounts of political, military and religious life in the Mideast. Actually, it was more than dazzling. He was informative; he was insightful; he was witty.
The affinity of Jews to Chinese food reaches its apotheosis in John Krich\’s \”Won Ton Lust: Adventures in Search of the World\’s Best Chinese Restaurant\” (Kodansha, $24). It\’s no outrageous stereotype to state that, as a people, American Jews seem to need a good Chinese meal to kick-start us into the week. It\’s nothing to be ashamed of;neither is it anything to take lightly.\n
Fifty years ago this week, on Nov. 29, 1947, the General Assembly ofthe United Nations voted to partition British-held Palestine into aJewish state, an Arab state, and a corpus separatum, comprisingJerusalem and Bethlehem, to remain under the control of the UnitedNations.
About a decade ago, I was interviewing Professor Richard Hovannisian, the eminent UCLA authority on modern Armenian history.\n\nHe lamented the state of the Armenian Diaspora in Los Angeles, with its infighting and confrontations between church leaders, and its American-born generations forgetting the mother tongue and marrying out at an alarming rate.\n