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Rabbi N1$$0N Wolpin, Editor Amessage from Agudath Israel about the difference between govermnent. And when ilie rest of ilie ~::-.::::=~: support and world looks to see just how strong ilie ranks of Torah really are. Keep showing your support. Stay on ili=o~~!~~=~~urevenffi membershin- top of iliings wiili The Jewish Observer ~~~~=~~:tion and our ·P' and Dos Yuidishe lint. Learn from ilie And iliey proudly applaud our constant ment of Torah Jews. Gedolei HaTorah at our convention. Participate efforts to represent ilie voice of Turah Judaism Numbers do count. When you fight for more in our Torah study programs. Help identify in Washington and to ilie entire Jewish world. financial support for yeshivas. When important opportunities for ilie unemployed. Reach out to But to be areal force you must be a religious principles are questioned in public school kids wiili IBP. Help attend to ilie movement. And only our members make us a physical and spiritual needs of Russian Jews in movement. ilie Soviet Union as well as immigranffi to ilie Unlike mosdos, support alone cannot keep us USA and Israel. Give generously to our alive. Yet ilie iliousands of names on campaigns for overseas rescue and relief. membership cards iliroughout But don't stop wiili your support. the country can. Because mem- Join us and make adifference. bership defines us. It is what makes us what we are. America's vital, energetic, effective move- ---------------------------------------Agudaili Israel of America 84 William Street New York, NY 10038 I want to make adifference. Please enroll me as a Name ______________~ member of Agudaili Israel of America. Address _____________~ D $36 Annual Membership City ______ State ___ Zip ____ D $100 VIP Membership D $500 Life Membership Telephone No. _____________ AGUDATH ISRAEL OF AMERICA MEMBEHSIHP MAKES VS A MOVEMENT. THE,EWISH OBSERVER THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021-6615 4 is published monthly except July and August by the Agudath Israel of America, 84 William Street, Discordant Notes: An Essay on Golus and Egalitarianism New York, N.Y. 10038. Second class postage Dr. Aaron Twerski paid in New York, N.Y. Subscription $22.00 per year; two years. $36.00; three years, $48.00. Outside of the United States 12 (US funds drawn on a US bank only) $10.00 A Straight Path surcharge per year. Single copy $3.00; foreign Avrohom Elisha Ayson $4.00. Send address changes to The Jewish Observer, 84 William Street, N.Y., N.Y. 10038. Tel: (212) 797-9000. 14 Poetry Printed in the U.S.A. Burning Book • Autumn Leaf, Chaim Feinberg RABBI N1$$0N WOLPIN, EDITOR EDITORIAL SOARD 19 OR. ERNST BODENHEIMER Rabbi Pinchas Dovid Horowitz 7"Yr - Clul!nnan The First Bostoner Rebbe RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS Levi Reisman JOSEPH FRIEDENSON RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN MANAGEMENT BOARD 25 NAFTOLI HIRSCH Report From Moscow, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt ISAAC KIRZNER RABBI SHLOMO LESIN Report From the Ukraine, Rabbi Yaakov Bleich NACHUM STEIN RABBI YOSEF C. GOLDING 31 Business Manager Thinking About Trees Published by David Freund Agudath Israel of America RABBI MOSHE SHERER 35 PRESIDENT An Open Letter to My Questioning Friend THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not assume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product, publication, or service 38 advertised in Its pages Books in Review: of Great Men and Historical Events ©Copyright 1992 TuE NoDAH BIYEHUDA I RABBI YISROEL AsucHATZIRA / TuE GAON OF POSEN I A CHRONICLE OF HARDSHIPS AND HOPE I RABBI ESRIEL JANUARY 1992 HILDESHEIMER AND THE CREATION OF MODERN 0ITTHODOXY / TuE EDGE VOLUME XXIV I NO. 10 OF DARKNESS/ AND RACHEL WAS His WIFE Dr. Aaron Twerski Discordant Notes: An Essay on Golus and Egalitarianism arn1elite nuns erect a co11vent ing a Cossack attack. What should within the gales of Auschwitz. the Jewish response be to these C The act offends lhe sensibili­ events? ties of Jews for reaso11s that need no he President of the United elaboration. The response of Cardi­ States, George Bush, decides nal Glemp and the confrontation with T to delay ten billion dollars in some militant An1ericm1 Jewish activ­ loan guarantees to Israel to help the ists is 11ow history. The issue has resettlement of Russian emigres. His been on and off the front pages of purpose in doing so is to exert pres­ world newspapers for lhe last lwo sure on Israel to halt settlements in years. The rhetoric has been extreme the West Bank so as to facilitate the and the clash engendered more than Anti-Semitism peace talks. When questioned about verbal jousting. Question: Was the in Thought, Speech, the subject at a news conference, t11e Jewisl1 reaction wise? President expresses annoyance at rown Heights explodes as a and Destructive Action ... "thousands oflobbyists" who fan out result of an urlfortt1nate auto- over Washil1gton seeking to assert C 1nobile accident in which a their influence. How should a Jew black child was killed. The driver of respond to this public rebuff? the car that caused the accident was In general, are there a set of Torah a Lubavitcher Chassid. Almost im­ inspired guidelines to help inform our mediately following lhe incident. reactions to hostile events and to re­ Yankel Rosenbaum, i"~i1. a young Or­ marks that can be interpreted as less thodox Jewish scholan1siting Brook­ than friendly in nature? lyn from Australia, is deliberately murdered by a gang of marauding blacks. Crown Heights is bathed in • • • violence. None of it en1anates fron1 Unfriendly Remarks, nti-semitism is not a new phe­ the Chassidic con1mu11ity. Irrespo11- Boycotts and Tough Tulk nomenon. It has an ancient sible rabble rousers bring in gangs lo A pedigree. Manifestations of wreak havoc on the neighborhood. anti-semitism and reactions thereto The Mayor vacillates for almost three are set forth in Sefer Bereishis and are days before he takes decisive action. spilled over the pages of the Talmud. Jn the meantime Crown Heights takes Torah leaders throughout the ages on the appearance of a shtetl follow- have left us a legacy rich in content Dr. Twerski Is a professor of law in Brooklyn Law as to how they responded to a wide School and serves as chainnan of Agudath Israel variety of anti-semitic attacks. Not of Atnerica's Conimission on Legislation and Civic merely individual responses relevant Action. 11J.is article was prepared for The Jewish to a particular time and a particular Observer, and served as the basis for the author's presentation at the recent National Convention of circumstance, these reactions over Agudath Israel of Atnerica. -How Are Jews to React? the centuries suggest some broad 4 The Jewish Observer. January 1992 patterns, which indicate a clear efit balancing, or even if they purport hended, the nuns might have been halachic approach. After all, with the to do so, will almost always opt for a killed and the convent destroyed. stroke of a pen or with an improvident strident response. The goal ofattain­ These allegations were patently false. word one can let loose forces that are ing-m, more often, portraying-true In 1989, Glemp was invited to the as deadly as a loaded gun. It would equality when placed in the balance United States by Polish-American indeed be strange that the question of will simple outweigh competing con­ groups. Dershowitz wrote to Glemp whether to remove a critically ill pa­ siderations. informing him that when he came to tient from a respirator is a halachic The most recent salvo challenging the United States, either he or his at­ problem, and whether to undertake a I American Jewry for not demanding torney would be served with legal pro­ demonstration that could trigger vio­ their full equality is the best-seller by cess for a tort action alleging mali­ lence and loss of life would be subject Professor Alan Dershowitz of the cious defamation. Immediately to whim and personal.opinion. The Harvard Law School. In his recent thereafter, Glemp canceled his trip to societal factors that must be consid­ book entitled Clmztpah Dershowitz the United States. Dershowitz was ered are pikuach nefesh-matters castigates American Jews for viewing exultant. He had won a great victory. pertaining to life and death-and themselves "as second class citizens, It was a great victory for de­ clearly within the realm of halacha as guests in another people's land," cency. It was also a victory for Jew­ and urges that "we must demand the ish power. It sent a clear message PROCEEDING FROM FIRST to Cardinal Glemp and his ilk: Jews PREMISES no longer take this kind of bigotry Anti-semitism has an without fighting back. We don't just efore engaging in discussion hide in our homes and pray that there Will be no pogrom. We don't as to what are appropriate re­ ancient pedigree. come hat in hand begging for jus­ B sponses to anti-semitism, it is tice. We invoke our rights as necessary to first ask, what does one Torah leaders throughout equals. We fight back as equals. seek to accomplish? The most obvi­ And we get results. ous answer is pragmatic in nature. the ages have struggled Combativeness, assertiveness, One hopes to alter either the con­ with the problem and and tough one-upmanship is the or­ duct or views of the anti-semite, or der of the day. Only heavy doses of that of the people who are likely to be Chutzpah will save us from devasta­ influenced by him, by appealing to have left us a legacy rich tion. Dershowitz's thesis is not new. their logic and sense of decency. There Since time !mmemorial, the battle cry may be yet another goal. By raising in content as to how they for political equality as an inherent the issue to public light there is a be­ good has been sounded by dissidents lief that people who are unaware and responded to a wide within the Jewish nation.
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