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SINCE-1934 • A LABOR ZIONIST JEWISH CONTENTSVol. LXVI, No. 1 (636) JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999

Frontier Israel 3 SINCE 1934 NEW ELECTIONS AFTER ALL Susan Hattis Rolef e 6 A LABOR ZIONIST JOURNAL POLITICAL STORMS Misha Louvish Founders Biography 9 Hayim Greenberg A BURNING BUSH: MOSHE SNEH David Rosenthal Marie Syrkin 16 MASTER SPY ELI COHEN Joseph Adler Editorial Board Henry Feingold, Chairman Books 22 Saul B . Cohen JEWS: THE ESSENCE AND Hyman Faine CHARACTER OF A PEOPLE Jonathan J. Goldberg Emanuel S. Goldsmith by Arthur Hertzberg and Jerry Goodman Aron Hirt-Manheimer Haim Chertok Rabbi Mark W. Kiel Chava Lapin MESSIANISM, ZIONISM AND 24 Judy Loebl JEWISH RELIGIOUS RADICALISM Jeffry V Mallow Daniel Mann by Aviezer Ravitsky Jack Fischel Mordecai Newman Samuel Norich In Memoriam 26 Michael S . Perry AVIVA KAUFMAN PENN Elaine S. Mann Mark Raider Eduardo Rauch HINDA KATZMAN 25 Ezra Spicehandler Phyllis Sutker In the Movement 28 David Twersky GARIN 2000 - THE REAL DEAL Ezra Weinberg THE INTERNATIONAL 30 INSTITUTE AT BET BERL Nahum Guttman Contributors 31 Editor Poetry 31 THE CONFERENCE Edmund Pennant NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS If you plan to move, please notify FLYING KITES IN PELHAM us six weeks in advance . A SURVIVOR'S LEGACY 29 TO HER CHILDREN Judith Sherman

JEWISH FRONTIER (ISSN-0021-6453) is published bi-monthly by Labor Zionist JEWISH FRONTIER Letters, Inc. Editorial and advertising offices at 275 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001 . Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY . POSTMASTER : Send address changes to Circulation, Jewish Frontier, 275 Seventh Avenue, 17th Floor, New York, 275 Seventh Avenue NY 10001 . Subscription rates for U.S. and possessions, $15 .00 per year for 6 issues, $25 .00 for 17th Floor two years for 12 issues. Add $2.50 for Canada . All other countries - $20.00 per year; New York, NY 10001 All foreign subscribers - remit in U .S. dollars drawn on a U.S . bank. Back issues- payable in advance at $5 .00 each. Editorial / article contributions should be sent to the editorial office and be accom- Telephone: (212) 229-2280 panied by return postage. Editorial and advertising rates available on request. (212) 366-1194 All material (unless otherwise noted) © 1999 Jewish Frontier. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect the official position of JEWISH FRONTIER. Fax : (212) 675-7685 JEWISH FRONTIER is available on microfilm from : University Microfilm, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 . Distributed by Bernhard De Boer, Inc ., 113 East Centre St ., Nutley, NJ 07110.

2 JEWISH FRONTIER ISRAEL

New Elections After All By Susan Hattis Rolef

n December 21, 1998, the Knesset passed First, there was the stubborn opposition aO bill for the early dissolution of the Knesset . In among certain members of the Coalition to the first reading, 81 Members of Knesset - includ- Wye Plantation Agreement and Netanyahu's ing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and ambivalence regarding the Agreement's imple- Minister of Defense Itzik Mordechai - voted in mentation . On the other hand there were favor of the bill, and 30 voted against . Despite those in the Coalition who supported the the fact that he voted in favor of early elections, Agreement (including Minister of Defense in his speech Netanyahu made a faint, last- Itzik Mordechai), who were disturbed by minute offer in the Labor Party to join a na- Netanyahu's ambivalence, for the opposite tional unity government an offer he knew reasons. would be rejected out of hand, and which was Second, as the month of December rapidly made to try and gain some points with the gen- came to a close, the Government was unable to eral public ("You see, I offered national unity- get its budget for 1999 through . After several it was Labor that rejected it!") . The following weeks of arguing that without the support of week the Knesset Constitution, Law and Jus- all sections off the Coalition for the budget and tice Committee decided that elections would be the economic goals that it aspired to attain, held on May 17 - exactly 22 years after the the Government could not continue to func- elections to the 9th Knesset, which for the first tion . Minister of Finance Yaacov Ne'eman, who time brought the Likud to power . On January had actively supported the idea of forming a 4, 1999, the Knesset passed the early dissolu- national unity government, decided to resign .' tion in second and third reading . This time 85 Even before Ne'eman announced his intention MKs voted in favor and 27 against . Speaker to resign, Netanyahu tried to bolster up his Dan Tichon abstained and Netanyahu didn't coalition by offering the Ministry of Finance to show up. the leader of Gesher, David Levy, who earlier The Knesset's decision to dissolve itself re- this year left the Ministry for Foreign Affairs flected a widespread feeling, both within the with a huff and a puff. But very soon, and true Opposition and the Coalition, that Netanya- to character, Netanyahu managed to hurt hu's Government had reached a dead-end, and Levy's feelings, and Levy returned to his cor- that there was no way out of this situation . ner sulking . That the Opposition should have reached that Third, independently of any particular is- conclusion is not surprising, but the Opposi- sue, there was growing opposition among tion was joined by close to half the Members of Likud Ministers and Knesset Members to Knesset from the Coalition . A combination of reasons convinced numerous members of 1 In the Summer of 1998 Ne'eman had acted as an inter- the Coalition that early elections were desir- mediary between Netanyahu and Labor leader Ehud able (or unavoidable) - all connected with the Barak in an attempt to work out the basis for a national unity government, but despite progress in working out incoherence of the Government, on the one the basic guidelines for such a government, the attempt hand, and Netanyahu's character and style, on failed . The final death blow to the initiative was Netan- the other. yahu's aggressive attack against the Labor Party after his return from Wye Plantation .

.JANUARY/FRRRUARY 1999 3 Netanyahu's broken promises and fickle lead- elections to 32 in 1996 while the Likud went ership, the sole goal of which seems to be the down from 32 to 22), will emerge further weak- Prime Minister's own political survival, at any ened. This is not just because of the desertions cost . Outgoing Tel-Aviv mayor, Ronnie Milo from the Likud and several expected deser- was the first senior member of the Likud to tions from Labor,' but also because the system leave the party. At the end of December he was enables and even encourages split voting, joined by two Likud "princes" - former Minis- which tends to strengthen the medium sized ter of Finance Dan Meridor, and later former parties at the expense of the large ones .:' Minister of Science and Technology Benny As to the contest for Prime Minister, at this Begin, son of former Prime Minister Mena- stage it seems as though there might be chem Begin. While Milo and Meridor turned as many as five or six contestants in the first to the Center, Begin turned to the Right . At round, including Prime Minister Binyamin the time of writing (4 January, 1999) another Netanyahu, Labor leader Ehud Barak, former two senior members of the Likud - Minister Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, (possi- of Defense Itzik Mordechai and Minister of bly) Dan Meridor, Benny Begin, and Rabbi Communications Limor Livnat - are also con- Yossef Ba-Gad (a former Member of Knesset sidering leaving the Likud . It is believed that for Moledet, and something of a clown) . Even if if the two do finally decide to leave, Mordechai some of these personalities finally decide not will turn to the Center and Livnat will join to run, it is quite unlikely that any of the can- Begin . didates will manage to get more than 50% of Among those who object to Netanyahu's the votes, and therefore there will be a second leadership but nevertheless decided to stay in round of elections for the Premiership on June the Likud, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert 1. In the second round it is assumed that the considered contesting the Likud leadership, contest will be between Netanyahu on the one but decided to give up, when he discovered hand and either Barak or Lipkin-Shahak on that in the current Likud Central Committee the other. he cannot possibly win. Another Likud "prince" Strangely enough, the opinion polls still - chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs show Lipkin-Shahak as the only candidate and Security Committee Uzi Landau - has certain to beat Netanyahu thoroughly, even decided to challenge Netanyahu, with the sup- though he hasn't yet expressed clear positions port of former Likud leader and Prime Minis- on any issue, and formally hasn't even got a ter Yitzhak Shamir, even though he doesn't party. Lipkin-Shahak's appeal is his solid stand a chance . looks, his honest smiling eyes and the fact that so far he hasn't said anything wrong (or any- n Israeli politics four and a half months - thing right, for that matter) . Apparently Lip- the time left until the elections - are a very kin-Shahak will join up with Milo (who has longI time, and at this stage it is very difficult already got a registered party), but currently it to guess what will happen in the course of this is not yet clear whether he will manage to get period. Several things are clear, however . The Meridor to join as well . Meridor is insisting first is that even though on December 21 the that if he joins Lipkin-Shahak and Milo, it will Knesset also passed, in first reading, a bill for only be at a later stage that the new Center the cancellation of the direct election of the party that they will create, will decide who its Prime Minister, which was proposed by Mem- leader should be . Both Lipkin-Shahak and bers of Knesset Uzi Landau (Likud) and Yossi Beilin (Labor), it will only come into force 2 At the moment it seems fairly certain that in addition to former Labor Secretary General Nissim Zvili, who has towards the elections to the 16th Knesset, and already indicated his intention to join Amnon Lipkin- the approaching elections to the 15th Knesset Shahak's new party (see below), several others might will still be for both the Prime Minister and also leave . Among the names mentioned are those of the Knesset . Haim Ramon, Avrum Burg and Hagai Merom . 3 At this stage I would venture to predict (even though it As to the elections to the Knesset, it seems has been said that since the destruction of the Second fairly certain that the Labor Party and the Temple prophecy has been given to fools only . . .), that Likud, which were both greatly weakened in businesswoman and former glamor girl Pnina Rose n- 1996, partially as a result of the new system blum will not only get into the 15th Knesset, but will bring in several additional members - so far unnamed (Labor went down from 44 seats in the 1992 - from her list.

a JEWISH FRONTI E R

Milo feel that this is a mistake, and that it will Netanyahu, and that the Labor Party, with its be very difficult to get the party going if it Left-wing image, is a political hump . Unfortu- doesn't have a leader from the start . nately, he is surrounded by several advisors, At the moment Netanyahu is licking his who have an ax to grind with the Labor Party, wounds and trying to attract some new figures and they are encouraging him to run sepa- (especially former generals like Mattan Vilnai) rately at all costs. The main "culprit" is Shi- to join his team. The desertion of his former mon Sheves, Rabin's former right-hand man, aide and Director General of the Prime Minis- who as Director General of the Prime Minis- ter's Office, Avigdor Lieberman, who declared ter's Office in the years 1992-95 managed to on January 3 that he was forming a new new cause a lot of tensions between Rabin and immigrants' party, that will contest against some of his Ministers . Another person close to Natan Sheransky's "Yisrael Be'aiiya" in addi- Lipkin-Shahak is Yossi Ginnosar, one of the tion to fighting "the treacherous Likud heads of the General Security Service (the princes", the legal system and "the police Shabak) at the time of the bus number 300 state", has certainly not caused Netanyahu Affair in 1984 (in which two Palestinian ter- much Nahat. Barak, on the other hand, is also rorists were killed by the Shabak after being trying to attract various outside groups to join caught alive), who had contested a place on the his "Yisrael Ahat" (one Israel) movement, and Labor list for the 13th Knesset and failed . was reported to have reached an agreement with David Levy to this effect . But Barak too n the next few weeks the political map will must still contend with possible desertions become a little clearer and start to jell, and (see footnote 2) before he can start extending theI election campaign, that will officially begin his ranks . Fortunately, former Labor leader in March, will start in earnest . Even though a and Prime Minister Shimon Peres has stopped lot will be said about economics and social trying to undermine Barak's position, and has issues, the future of the peace treaty will be actually declared his support for him . the main issue . Netanyahu will continue to Both Netanyahu and Barak are hoping that talk about a "secure peace" . Begin will argue in the coming four and a half months "Shahak that Netanyahu has sold out to the Palestini- Yishanek" ("Shahak will be eroded") . Yitzhak ans, while Barak and Shahak will talk about Rabin's widow, Lea, has been making great the inevitability of the Palestinian state and efforts to get Lipkin-Shahak to give up the idea talks with President Assad, which will result of running separately in the elections, and in Israel's giving the whole or most of the Go- agree to be number two in the Labor list, with lan Heights back to Syria in return for peace the promise of the Ministry of Defense in the with both Syria and Lebanon . However, most government which Barak will hopefully form of the campaign will be very personal, with a after the elections . She has emphasized the fact lot of mutual mud-slinging . It is going to be a that both former Chiefs of Staff were greatly "dirty" campaign, and probably a violent one loved and admired by her late husband (also a as well. For those who like action, it is going former Chief of Staff), and has been hinting to to be a lot of fun . The Feinschmeckers are Lipkin-Shahak that even Rabin didn't run advised to put blinds on their eyes, plugs in straight away for Prime Minister after he their ears and clothes pegs on their noses . entered politics in 1973. Before being hushed Let us just hope that on May 18th (or rather by criticism from both the Right and the Left, June 2) it will be the sane, reasonable and President Ezer Weizman also actively encour- responsible Israel that will celebrate . After aged Lipkin-Shahak to join forces with Barak . two and a half years of Netanyahu's mis-Gov- However, Lipkin-Shahak is convinced that ernment, we have almost forgotten that such he has a better chance than Barak of beating an Israel ever existed . 0

JANUARY/ 1'I?13KUARY 1999 5 Political Storms By Misha Louvish

he collapse of Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud (the new name of the anti-labor party) . right-wingT government and the Knesset's deci- However, the days of its unquestioned supre- sion to hold premature elections to the post of macy were over. Prime Minister and the membership of the House have precipitated a series of far-reach- he issues faced by Israel today should be ing changes on the political scene . The devel- understood against the background of the opments are so rapid and unpredictable that conditionsT accepted by Menahem Begin for his the situation may well be radically different by most important achievement . He succeeded at the time this article appears in print . Camp David in concluding a peace treaty with During Israel's first two decades one politi- Egypt, the first to be signed with an Arab cal fact could be safely predicted : whatever country, at the expense of withdrawal from the changes might take place in the composition of Sinai Peninsula, which had been occupied in the Knesset, the largest party would always be the Six-Day War of 1967. the Israel Labor Party. Mifleget Poalei Eretz But that was not all . Since that area is not Yisrael, known by the acronym Mapai, and the part of the historic Land of Israel, Begin could basic question to be settled was : which smaller claim that he was not violating the basic Herut parties would combine with Mapai to form a principle of Eretz Yisrael Hashlemah, the com- coalition government? plete and undivided Land of Israel, but he also In 1977 there took place what was little had to pay a momentous price for the peace short of a democratic political revolution : as a with Egypt, a price that seems to be forgotten result of the failure of the Mapai leadership to in the current controversy over relations with foresee and prevent the cataclysmic outbreak the Arabs in the areas that Israel occupied in of the Yom Kippur War, the people's confidence repelling Arab aggression in 1967 . in the traditional major party was shattered, He agreed to negotiate on "the resolution of and Herut leader Menahem Begin, heading a the Palestine problem in all its aspects"; he combination of his own party with the Liber- promised "full autonomy" to the inhabitants of als, and with the support of a new party, the the West Bank and Gaza, and he undertook Democratic Movement for Change (Dash), won that the solution must "recognize the legiti- a majority in the Knesset and formed a gov- mate rights of the Palestinian people and their ernment, sending Mapai for the first time into just requirements ." the opposition . For nearly 15 years there was no progress in Since 1977 there have been many changes implementing these provisions of the Camp on the political scene : sometimes Labor - David agreements . It could be claimed that the Avodah (the new name adopted by Mapai ) Palestinians, under Yasir Arafat, remained succeeded in returning the largest party in the faithful to the National Covenant of the Pales- Knesset and forming a government in a coali- tine Liberation Organization, founded in 1964, tion, and sometimes it had to be content with a which demanded nothing less than the annihi- secondary position in a coalition headed by the lation of Israel. In 1988, however, Arafat vio-

6 JEWISH FRONTIER lated the fundamental provisions of the sion of what Menahem Begin had agreed to Covenant by recognizing Israel's right to exist at Camp David, but Netanyahu said that he and offering to negotiate with it, and declared would implement the Oslo agreement because that the Covenant was obsolete . it had been signed by a legitimate Israeli gov- An international conference on the Palestin- ernment, and followed up by handing over ian problem was held in Madrid, but there was most of Hebron to the Palestinians . However, little progress until Labor was able to form a he tried to hold up further concessions as long coalition with a narrow majority under the as possible on various pretexts in order to pla- late Yitzhak Rabin as prime minister in 1992, cate the powerful hawks among his supporters . and succeeded in reaching agreement at Oslo, Netanyahu also ran into trouble over home for the first time, with the PLO on a Declara- policy. He had to make extensive concessions tion of Principles, which was intended to lead to his religious partners, who together held to a permanent settlement of the long-stand- more Knesset seats than his own Likud . Fi- ing dispute with the Palestinians . nance Minister Dan Meridor (Likud) resigned The prospects of further progress towards because of disagreement on financial and eco- peace were brutally shattered by the assassi- nomic policy, and he was followed by David nation of Rabin and its consequences . Shimon Levy, together with his Gesher group, who ac- Peres, his successor, seemed to be well on the cused Netanyahu of insensitivity to social road to success in the 1996 elections, but sev- problems and too tough attitudes in the peace eral major terrorist outrages undermined the negotiations . confidence of the electors and Binyamin Ne- tanyahu achieved a narrow victory in the elec- espite the rule of collective cabinet respon- tion of the prime minister. sibility, ministers openly questioned and criticizedD government policies . Ultimately it basic reform had been introduced by gen- was clear that the government could not func- eral consent: in 1996 for the first time tion. Proposals came from several quarters for thereA were actually two elections, one for the the establishment of a national unity govern- prime minister and another, separately, for ment including Labor, but Netanyahu did not the Knesset. There had been widespread dis- offer to consider such a solution until the last satisfaction with the often unsavory haggling moment of a Knesset debate on the dissolution between the parties before a prime minister of the Knesset and the holding of premature could be elected by the House, and it was elections. widely hoped that the reform would increase The growing weakness of Netanyahu's coali- stability. tion and the decision to hold premature elec- These hopes were sadly disappointed . The tions were accompanied by unprecedented po- voters found that they could split their vote, litical storms . Ronni Milo, the retiring Mayor supporting one of the two candidates for the of Tel Aviv, had already announced his inten- premiership and expressing their sectional tion to set up a new center party as an alter- interests in the choice off their parliamentary native to the two veteran organizations . Meri- representatives . The result was that the two dor, who had remained in the Likud after his large parties lost much of their strength with resignation from the government, announced 34 seats for Labor and 32 for a combination his resignation from the party and his candi- of the Likud with Gesher ("Bridge"), led by dacy for the premiership . David Levy, and Tsomet ("Crossroads"), head- Ehud Barak, who was the undisputed chair- ed by former Chief of Staff Raphael Eitan . man of the Labor Party in succession to Shi- Thus the Likud itself had only 20 seats, but mon Peres (who, at the age of 75, was obvi- no one except Netanyahu was entitled to form ously too old for another term as prime minis- a government . ter), had not seemed to compete effectively It was not long before the weakness of the with Netanyahu in the polls. Although Barak coalition was revealed . It rested on the support had been a brilliant IDF Chief of Staff and of seven parties and groups, and there were Israel's most highly decorated soldier, he had disagreements within the Likud itself. Netan- not captured the imagination of the electors as yahu and his party had opposed the Oslo ac- the successor to the traditional Labor leader- cord, although it was really a weakened ver- ship.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999

Then came the extraordinary phenomenon also announced his intention to run for prime of Amnon Lipkin Shahak, who was due to com- minister. plete his four-year term as Chief of Staff of the Two popular Likud members of the govern- Israel Defense Forces. Even before he took off ment, Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordecai and his uniform it was reported that he intended to Communications Minister Limor Livnat, are get into politics in the framework of the new reported to be hesitating whether to stay center party and stand for election as prime where they are or resign and join the new cen- minister. ter party. Some Labor members are also said to Although Shahk had not yet said a word in be wavering . public about his political principles and poli- Barak seems to have brought about a re- cies (and has still, at the time of writing, made markable coup in winning the support of only a few non-commital remarks), public Gesher leader David Levy, who has paid trib- opinion polls showed a remarkable degree of ute to him as the only leader who has empha- electoral support for him in competition with sized social problems . If agreement can be Netanyahu and Barak, the Labor leader. Sha- reached on an alliance with Levy and his hak is a strikingly handsome man who has the group, similar to the old Maarach or Align- image of the ideal husband, father or uncle, ment between Labor and Mapam (the "United and it appeared that many of the electors have Workers' Party"), that might well be a decisive been looking for a new leader, unsullied by the factor in the elections . If Barak succeeds in unsavory aspects of politics. reaching an agreement with Meimad, the mod- Binyamin Begin, obviously forgetting his erate religious movement, that would also be father's great concessions to the Palestinians, a significant move . has also proclaimed his resignation from the The date of the elections has been fixed by Likud and is standing on a platform of uncom- agreement for May 17 to avoid interfering with promising opposition to the Oslo accords and Independence Day and the Jewish festivals . any territorial concessions whatever to Yasir There will, no doubt, be many changes before Arafat. Tsomet leader Raphael Eitan has then. 0

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8 ,JEWISH FRONTIER BIOGRAPHY

A Burning Bush The Rise and Fall of Moshe Kleinbaum-Sneh

By David Rosenthal

n Dziady (The Forefathers), a masterwork tions of a man full of spiritual unrest? ofI Poland's national poet, Adam Mickiewicz, Moshe Kleinbaum took his first steps as a the spiritual transformation of the selfish char- leader within Polish Jewry. At that time, one acter Gustav into the patriotic martyr Conrad could have applied to him the aphorism coined is denoted by the phrase "Here died Gustav, by Chaim Nachman Bialik of Zalman Schneur here was born Conrad." The metamorphosis is - that he appeared like the young Samson, so radical that the poet uses the terms of birth whose hair grew long overnight . and death to describe the appearance of the The "overnight" period in this case was in "new" personality. 1931, when Kleinbaum was 22 years old . In Gustav, the hero of Part IV of Dziady, is fo- Warsaw a new Zionist daily, Nowe Slowo, was cused on himself; he lives only in the sphere of making its first appearance. The editorial staff his own interests and emotions. Conrad, on the consisted of Yitzhak Gruenbaum, Dr . Joseph contrary, identifies himself completely with Davidson, and Dr . Yitzhak Schipper. Around Poland, its martyrology and aspirations . (The this tribunal was gathered a group of writers poem, written after the November 1831 upris- and Jewish leaders with established reputa- ing against the Russians, is based on the Russ- tions, as well as several whose names gave ian persecutions of Polish student youth .) promise of a new generation of journalists and Through Conrad speak - boldly and power- activists . fully - the accumulated tribulations of gener- Nowe Slowo was noted for its militant spirit ations of Polish freedom fighters, so that he and its radical opposition to the Polish govern- can exclaim to God: "I am a million, because I ment. The newspaper soon gained a devoted endure the the sufferings of millions ." To the readership, thanks to the high level of its ma- reader, Conrad and Gustav are one and the terial on public issues . The Sunday edition fea- same individual, but with different souls, tured Nahum Sokolow's "European Letters" strivings, and desires . with their uniquely intellectual and individual style and content; the feuilletons of Ben Levi as Moshe Kleinbaum-Sneh such a hero (the pen name of Sejm Deputy Appolinary in the real world? Was there in Moshe Hartglas); articles by Yitzhak Gruenbaum, by WKleinbaum, in one period, the Haganah com- the versatile historian Yitzhak Schipper, and mander Amram, a follower of Yitzhak Gruen- others . baum, and in another period, a disciple of Josef Although each one of these men was a tal- Stalin? Did he go through agonies to find the ented writer, and they overshadowed the ideological truth, or did his sophisticated in- lesser-known writers, the reader's attention ventiveness lead him to leap like an acrobat was soon drawn to the short, single-column from one camp to another because he always editorials under the byline of Moizesz Klein- accommodated his views to the direction of the baum. These editorials were distinguished by political winds? Were his ideological transfor- an economy of words and a mathematical pre- mations an expression of a split personality, or cision in formulating problems and positions . did they perhaps reflect the uneasy peregrina- The name "Kleinbaum" began to engrave itself

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999 on the consciousness of Polish Jews . Thanks to series of draconian, anti-democratic decrees Nowe Slowo, Kleinbaum broke out of the stu- which led to the arrest of important socialist dent ranks (he was then studying medicine in and peasant leaders . In 1934, on the instruc- Warsaw), and entered upon the broad high- tions of Joseph Goebbels, a concentration ways of a turbulent Jewish world and world in camp was set up in Bereza Kartuska, where general. scores of Jewish labor leaders were imprisoned (among whom were Chaim Brand, who mirac- ulously survived, and after coming to the United States was director of the Workmen's or about ten years, Moshe Kleinbaum was Circle Division of the Israel Histadrut Cam- active in the affairs of Polish Jewry. There paign in New York). areF those who say that at that time he was a follower of the Gruenbaum school . This view, he Jewish situation deteriorated from day however, is not justified, because even then to day. The pauperization of the masses of his own distinct path as a leader, writer, and JewsT deepened . Instead of parceling out the speaker was beginning to sparkle with the large estates of the nobility to the peasants, brightness of his considerable talent. His spe- the government announced a plan to move cial style as a political analyst and party large numbers of villagers to the cities, where leader was expressed against the background they would take over Jewish properties and of the general situation then prevalent in Po- businesses . The government spoke openly land and in the world Zionist movement . about deporting Jews to Madagascar and Polish-Jewish history and the general about annulling all their constitutional rights events in the country were not two isolated or - which existed mostly on paper anyway . The separate spheres, without any relationship to "Aryan paragraph" was introduced into the each other. Jews understood that their own sit- free professions. A wave of pogroms broke out uation was dependent on Polish national life . in the areas around Lodz, Kielce, and Warsaw . Jewish political parties could therefore not re- The Catholic Church, headed by Cardinals main indifferent to the struggle between the Krakowski and Hlond, gave its blessings to all democratic forces and the military-fascist cir- those medieval restrictions and to the eco- cles. In 1931 there were already signs that Po- nomic boycott. land had completely dissociated itself from the This situation required new forms of politi- tradition of romantic and aristocratic liberal- cal struggle and resistance from the Jewish ism which its best cultural leaders had tried to side. Jews could no longer limit themselves to implant in the people . protest statements in a city council, or to vot- Mieczyslaw Niedziatkowski, one of the no- ing against government budgets in parlia- blest figures in the Polish socialist movement ment . Jewish opposition to the reactionary, (the Nazis murdered him in Auschwitz) char- fascist plans had to be given a mass character . acterized the situation this way : Jozef Pilsud- Under the influence of Moshe Kleinbaum, ski (autocratic ruler and former socialist) was Appolinary Hartglas, Dr. A. Insler, and Yit- in the early 1930s the leader of the vanishing zhak Schipper, the Zionist Organization of world of old Poland, the Poland of aristocratic Congress Poland aligned itself with the social- families, industrial firms, bureaucracy and ist and democratic opposition . It called for a moral corruption . With a dramatic turn to the boycott of the Sejm elections of 1935, although right came further developments : Pilsudski the General Zionists (Group B), the Aguda, the appeared with a band of armed colonels in par- Mizrachi, Eyt Livnot, and the Merchants As- liament. When the old Socialist tribune, Igna- sociation rejected it. cy Daszewski, refused to open the session un- Together with all the democratic parties, der this threat of bayonets, the Marshal dis- the Zionist Organization called upon the Jew- solved the Sejm and ordered new elections . ish population to concentrate on municipal This incident led to the creation of Cen- elections, because their rules still assured a trolew, a union of six parties led by the social- fair distribution of mandates, a regulation ist and peasant movements . Their aim: to oust which the fascist government virtually abol- the Pilsudski regime and establish a parlia- ished in the elections to the Sejm and the Sen- mentary democracy. In reaction came a whole ate. Mass participation in the elections to the

10 JEWISH FRONTIER city councils, despite the "dirty tricks" of the jamin Tiomkewicz, and several others . Each of government, was an expression of protest by them had his own loyal followers; each one had the entire Polish and Jewish democratic move- the respect and trust of his own circle. But ment against the policy of following and imi- Moshe Kleinbaum mobilized the uncompro- tating Italian fascism and German Nazism . mising, militant opposition to the government . The weapons of struggle for the democratic The extent or his influence can be seen in the and socialist circles remained the municipali- fact that a number of Polish liberal writers and ties and the press, although the government university professors (Michalowicz, Kridel, did everything it could to limit their freedom Kotarbinski) issued a weekly under the name and influence . In this section of the battle- of Czarno Na Bialym (Black on White), one front, Moshe Kleinbaum displayed a great issue or which was given over to the Jewish deal of personal courage . problem in Poland . The editors asked two Jew- ish leaders to present their views - Victor r. Kleinbaum waged his war on the pages Alter, the highly regarded theoretician and of the dailies Heint and Nowe Slowo, and leader of the Bund, and Moshe Kleinbaum . theD weeklies Opinia and later Ster . On. the staffs of Opinia and Ster was Leopold Halpern, uring his years of activity in Poland, a young scholar who specialized in problems Kleinbaum sought allies in all circles : in of national minorities . Other stars included theD peasant movement, among the socialists, Jacob Bleiberg, Sh . Shwerdshart, Stefan Po- and even among extreme left-wing elements . mer, and Moshe Szymel . A number of young At his 60th birthday celebration, held in Beth students, among them H. Justus (who used to Sokolov in Tel Aviv, he related that several send his dispatches from Jerusalem Univer- years before the Eighth Congress of the Com- sity), saw their first efforts printed in these intern - which proclaimed the slogan of the newspapers . In their pages also, Roman "popular front" - he had succeeded, together Brandstetter, in his emotional tone and in a with other Jewish labor leaders, in creating language full. of innovative expressions and just such a united movement in the Jewish neologisms, waged war against the Polish community. The objective was to "organize the anti-Semites and reactionaries. Jewish masses against fascism in Poland and None of them, however, had as strong an against the danger of Nazi aggression ." The influence on the formation of Zionist public Polish government, however, squelched these opinion as did Moshe Kleinbaum . He did not efforts by declaring the movement illegal . walk softly ; he did not win his audiences with The period of Moshe Kleinbaum's activities rhetorical tricks, nor did he flatter the strong in the Zionist Organization of Poland coincides - neither the rich Jews nor the Polish powers . with the time when the halutzic idea and His- In his articles he could be satirically sharp and tadrut were under heavy attack . The deepen- ironic as well as easygoing and penetratingly ing impoverishment of the Jewish population, clear. the difficulties of making aliya, the disappoint- The struggle created all sorts of alliances ment in the policies of the Mandate power - among the Jewish parties . In the 1930 elec- all this created a favorable soil for the slogan, tions to the Sejm, the right-wing Poale Zion "To the Right," for the demand to reassess worked with the Bund ; in the period prior to Zionist values and the means of Zionist fulfill- the outbreak of World War II - when the con- ment. Thus, in a number of European coun- test between the democratic forces and the tries, this reevaluation meant an Eretz Israel government centered on elections to the city without "socialist fantasies" in which the mid- councils - this constellation changed . The dle class would be dominant in the political Bund, the left Poale Zion, and the Communists and cultural life of the country. formed a united front in Warsaw in December Actually the attack against Labor began 1938. (The Communists could not run openly earlier - at the 1921 Zionist Congress in as a legal party, but their members and sym- Carlsbad, where Louis Brandeis presented his pathizers gave their votes to the slate .) plan to revamp the entire Zionist system . The The candidates off the Democratic Bloc were halutz movement - whose hallmarks were Anselm Reiss, Hoch Stein, Dr. M. Peker, Ap- self-sacrifice and concern for the community at polinary Hartglas, Abraham Trepman, Ben- large was to adopt the capitalistic philoso-

JANUARY/PF:RRUAI Y ieWi 1 1 phy of profit and special rewards for owners although the esteem in which he was held was and investors of capital . This view was very high - despite that, there was no snob- strengthened by the Fourth Aliya, which was bish haughtiness in him . Max Weber defines an aliya of the Jewish middle class of Poland . politics as a struggle for power, but Moshe These immigrants brought with them an ideol- Kleinbaum's life belies that notion . ogy which held that the national colonization In 1938 the democratic bloc of the Right based on the contribution of the halutzim and Poale Zion and the General Zionists elected on national capital was too costly and that its only one representative to the Warsaw City achievements were less productive and less Council, so the mandate went to Appolinary valuable than those of private colonization . Hartglas. That same year, at the St. James Conference' which the British government haracteristic of this period were the com- convened for Jews and Arabs, and in which ments of Chaim Weizmann, which reflec- Jewish leaders from Eretz Israel and the dias- ted,C albeit indirectly, the reasons for the split in pora participated with Chaim Weizmann and the Zionist Organization of Poland into Eyt David Ben Gurion at the head, the only repre- Livnot and Al Hamishmar . Alluding to the sentative of Polish Jewry was again Appoli- Fourth Aliya, Weizmann said : "When one nary Hartglas . Yet the elections took place at a leaves the Emek and comes into the streets of time when Moshe Kleinbaum's popularity was Tel Aviv the whole picture changes . The steady at its height. stream of olim gladdens me . I am happy that Several other facts cast light on Klein- the ships are bringing thousands of people who baum's uniqueness during his Polish period . are ready to risk their life savings in the Jewish Colonel Bogoslav Miedzynski, editor in-chief of national home . I do not underestimate the the government Gazeta Polska and vice Mar- importance of this aliya for our work of up- shal of the Sejm in 1935-38, had made one of building . Our brothers from the Nalewkis and his venomous speeches in the parliament . from Dzika Street are flesh of our flesh, blood of Beginning with the assertion that 50,000 was our blood. But we must find a way to direct this the largest number of Jews that Poland could stream and not allow it to divert us from our tolerate, he then moved on to a description of ultimate objective . It is essential to remember the Polish cities and towns which Jews were that we are not building our national home on "polluting" and which exuded an odor of "gar- the model of Dzika or the Nalewkis . We consid- lic and onions." ered life in the ghetto to be a hindrance on our Moshe Kleinbaum responded with an arti- path; in Eretz Israel we reached our home and cle entitled "The Pan Colonel Has a Subtle we are building there for eternity ." Nose." With biting irony, he demolished the It was to the credit of Al Hamishmar that at Colonel's abilities as a writer and parliamen- its head stood, first, Yitzhak Gruenbaum, and tarian and showed that his only qualification later, Moshe Kleinbaum ; it is thanks to their for editorship was the fact that he had efforts that middle class circles, too, recog- absorbed Streicher's teaching and was preach- nized the pioneer role of labor in the upbuild- ing its benighted "principles ." He ridiculed the ing of Eretz Israel, that they were able to colonel's ignorance in handling the problem of assess the value of "the wisdom of Zion," the the city and the village and concluded that for value and place of the working people and a subtle nose you also need an eye without the what they had created in the kvutzot and the film of hatred, as well as the intelligence to moshavim, that they rejected the shopkeeper understand social developments . To talk this image of Zionism and stressed its democratic way to a Polish colonel was no small chutzpa. folk character, that they too opposed all attempts to break the hegemony of labor in the n 1936, when the Arab riots broke out in world Zionist movement and in Eretz Israel . Palestine, the national organizations of the yishuvI and of the Zionist movement pro- oshe Kleinbaum's image has remained claimed the doctrine of Haulaga (restraint) . sharply engraved in my memory. Al- thoughM his success happened with lightning 1 At this conference, Foreign Minister Lord Halifax and Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald tried to force the speed, although he soared higher than his Jews to renounce not only the idea of a Jewish national comrades in his general grasp of things, home in Palestine but even of a Jewish majority there .

1 2 JKWIPH FRONTIER There were other circles, however, who rejected morphosis so absolute, that one can dare to that position . At that time Dr. Kleinbaum pub- paraphrase the poet's words here and say of lished an article in Haynt with the title "The him: "Here died Moshe Kleinbaum; here was Sun Comes Up in Flames ." He condemned the born Moshe Sneh ." tactic which made no distinction between His association with MAPAM (1947-53) is at Arabs who were terrorists and those who were least understandable . It was, after all, a move- innocent - men, women, and children against ment with halutzic traditions, with important whom some Jews were perpetrating acts of achievements in the upbuilding of Eretz revenge. This doctrine was fanning the flames, Israel, despite the fact that it aroused so much not extinguishing them, he said . It was driving opposition . Especially shocking was its posi- impartial Arabs into the terrorist groups tion on the Prague trials and the blood libels instead of isolating the terrorists from them . against Jewish doctors in the Soviet Union . Thanks to the Haganah, Kleinbaum argued, it MAPAM was a manifestation not only of has been demonstrated that it is now impossi- hyper-individualistic confusion, but also of ble to destroy the Jewish work of construction such blind servitude to Stalin that it almost or to paralyze Jewish life or to starve out the turned MAPAM itself into part of the Soviet yishuv. In the very midst of Arab terror, new moral wasteland . kibbutzim were being established - Tirat Z'vi, Kleinbaum's transition to MAPAM was not Hanita, and others - which were beacons of entirely unexpected . Even during his member- Jewish national freedom . ship in the General Zionist movement, he And then, in August 1939, came the 21st maintained that Russia would become an Zionist Congress in Geneva. The Congress important political factor in the Middle East Tseitung (of which a daily edition was pub- and that the Jews should therefore seek closer lished in several languages with stenographic ties with her. Even at that time he was anti- reports of all the sessions and the proceedings British. When Ben Gurion, before the State of the committees) brought the latest news was established, used to refer to the strength about the sessions . Over this Congress hov- of the Arab armies, Snen would accuse him or ered the shadow of the approaching world war . going so in order to divert attention from the Dr. Kleinbaum introduced a proposal that, in imperialist danger of Great Britain. view of the tense situation, the Congress It is well known that even when Sneh was should speed up its proceedings, so that the with MAPAM he was not completely trusted Polish delegation might have a chance to by many leading Israelis . in 1950, when return home before it was too late. The Execu- MAPAM was outside the government, its lead- tive was elected in haste . And Chaim Weiz- ers tried to explain this hostility by the fact mann closed the Congress with these words : that MAPAM's proposals relative to Tzva Ha- "I have only one prayer at this moment - haganah 1'Yisrael were not accepted, and that may we all see each other again . . . . its people had been kept out of the highest command posts in the army. in the negotia- 11; tions to broaden the government, Ben Gurion Moshe Kleinbaum's Eretz Israel period demonstrated the baselessness of that charge : (with the exception of the years 1940-1947, he assured them that "all former military com- when he headed the Haganah and was a mem- manders who were members of MAPAM - ber of the Jewish Agency Executive) is rich in Israel Galili Yigal Allon, Moshe Carmel - surprises and contradictions which muddled (with one exception), could immediately return his manner of thinking . In the eyes of his for- to their posts, because they had not been dis- mer followers and admirers, he brought about missed anyway, but resigned on their own ini- his own downfall . During this period he pre- tiative. sented a tragic figure, in the way that any great personality is tragic who has a compul- neh's affiliation with MAKI cast a dark sion to reverse his long-held views . Moshe shadow on his character and personality. Kleinbaum from Poland was miles apart from MAKIS was an outgrowth or the Palestinian Moshe Sneh of MAKI, the Jewish Communist Communist Party or of the "fraction" whose Party in Palestine . Between these two ideolog- anti-Zionism had a long history of almost ical positions there was such a wide gap, meta- pathological hatred of the Jewish yishuv `in

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999 1s Eretz Israel . The Communist Party of Pales- torical places . The Knesset members listened tine had ties to the Arab effendis and muftis. It with close attention and amazement and be- incited the Arab population against the Jews, gan searching for the real causes of this public called openly for pogroms and protest marches address by a communist leaders who was a against the "Zionist immigration of plunder trained and experienced politician and quite and of carnivals staged at the expense of the expert at partisan and political tactics . . . . It Arabs ." From the establishment of the State of is difficult to know what will really be the final Israel until 1967, MAKI followed the Moscow path of Sneh, a Zionist from birth, who sold his line on every issue, including Israel . soul to the Devil and joined the camp or the Moshe Sneh must have known very well sworn enemies of the Jewish homeland and its that he would be tainted by joining a Commu- culture." nist Party that took its directives from the Perhaps this speech was a harbinger of a Soviet Union. he was certainly familiar with change that was ripening within him, a change the split in the Poale Zion movement during which later led to the split in MAKI and to the which pro-Communist members hoped that publication or his famous theses at its 16th they would be able to safeguard some of their convention. Or perhaps the tradition and edu- Zionist beliefs while they were inside the cation of his father's house in Radzyn came Third International. The bitter finale or that back to move him . Prof. Isaiah Berlin, in his Illusion was no secret to him . he must have essay on Moses Hess, describes the religious remembered that the Polish Communist Party education and milieu which his grandfather was dissolved in 1935 by the Comintern for its had provided for him. Then he writes : "One sin of defending Poland's national indepen- can imagine the consequences for the world if dence against Nazi encroachment. And from Karl Marx, grandson of a rabbi, had been his visits to Poland after World War 11, he had raised in the religious way of life of a Moses an opportunity to convince himself personally Hess instead of on a diet of 18th century ratio- concerning the fate of all the leaders and mem- nalism by a father who was a devotee of bers of the Polish Socialist Party who had Voltaire. Perhaps Moses Sneh is an example of come up out of the underground and, together the consequences of a thoroughgoing Jewish with the Communists, had founded the United education." workers Party. There were other reasons for Moshe Sneh's Yes, he had plenty of opportunity to learn return to his Jewish sources and for his rejoin- that the Communist line is at all times and ing the Jewish future . One of them was the under all circumstances always the same-com- destruction of East European Jewry. In power- plete subordination to Soviet interests . Yet this ful and moving words he says, in his "Problems did not stop him, for so many years, from allow- of Communism, Democracy, and the Jewish ing himself to be trapped by that political line . People": "Every Jew knows and feels that he was t must be said, however, that Sneh had bro- sentenced to death only for the sin of being a ken with the official Soviet line even before Jew, and it is only accidental that the death theI Six Day War. In February 1963 he made a sentence on him was not carried out. Every speech to the Knesset which created a sensa- Jew bears with pride in his heart the yellow tion. Jonah Yigal (Goldberg, one of the leaders patch and the Magen David that our brothers of Gordonia in Poland) said about that particu- were forced to wear on their backs as a mark of lar speech : degradation while they were alive and as a "In the Knesset discussion about preserving sign that they were to be transported to the national resources and Israel's landscapes, death camps . . . . After all this, there are still Moshe Sneh delivered a flaming, patriotic those who come to this people and give them speech which, in form and content, reminded advice: `Please forget that you were Jews . Prime Minister David Ben Gurion of the Assimilate, please, free yourselves of your speeches of Moshe Sneh, the General Zionist . Jewishness, so that you may be free individu- His speech was reminiscent of the Song of als . . . . Could there be a more cynical or more Songs . . . . He referred to sources in the bible . brutal approach?"In "Crowns for the Head of The entire speech was overflowing with love Jewish Literary Criticism," Israel Stern ob- for Israel, its natural beauties, its hills, its his- served: "With daring, restless thinkers, there

JEWISH FRONTIER

sometimes occurs the miracle that, along with their mastery, God also grants them the strength and the patience to be able to limit themselves, to restrain their steps so that they don't plunge into labyrinths." Dr. Moshe Klein- baum-Sneh, whose fate was not medicine but politics, was not one of those fortunate ones . Therein lies, perhaps, one of the reasons for his tragic life, for his endless searching, for his achievements as well as his failures. 1:1

Dr. Moshe Kleinbaum-Sneh physician, statesman, editor (b. Radzyn, Poland, 1909; d. Jerusalem, 1972) .

oshe Sneh received a doctorate in medi- cine from the University of Warsaw Photo taken during plenary session of the World (1935)M . Jewish Congress June 1948 in Montreux, Switzer- land, during session celebrating establishment of Dr. Kleinbaum was one of the leaders of the State of Israel . Delegates are singing Hatikva: General Zionist Organization (Yitzhak Gruen- Moshe Sneh is at left. baum's school). He was the political editor of Hajnt, the Zionist Warsaw Yiddish-language daily ; and of the weeklies Opinia and later Ster. LABOR ZIONIST ALLIANCE Arriving in Palestine in 1940, Dr. Sneh mourns the passing of joined the Hagana, becoming its chief, a post which he held until 1946 . HINDA KATZMAN In 1945 he became a member of the Execu- a lifelong Labor Zionist who served many tive of the Jewish Agency Executive . He joined decades faithfully on the staff of the Far- the Mapam Party. on whose Executive Com- band and the National Committee for mittee he served until 1953 . Labor Israel. She was the widow of the late In 7.953 he left Mapam and formed Mifleget Jacob Katzman with whom she shared a ha-smol ha-sotzialisti that merged with the profound interest in Jewish life and the Communist party. cause of Israel . He was a member of the Knesset from 1949 to 1965 . 11

SIGN 'EM UP!!! There are thousands of Jews in every community who share the Labor Zionist vision and should share in implementing our program here and in Israel . SIGN 'EM UP as members of the Labor Zionist Alliance . The Time is NOW.

JANUARY/F] BRUARY 1999 15 MASTER SPY

The Saga of Eli Cohen

By Joseph Adler

ince the earliest of recorded time spies and nah, the clandestine Jewish organization for espionageS have had great political significance . armed self-defense in Palestine during the The Old Testament, for example, relates how the British Mandate, decided to expand its net- Lord directed Moses to select twelve of the work in Egypt, Eli eagerly joined the ranks of "rulers" of the tribes of Israel and ordered him to the new group . Nevertheless, he still found send them to spy upon the Land of Canaan . The time to continue his education and in 1946 Eli Bible also tells how Moses's successor Joshua enrolled in Cairo's King Farouk University as sent men into Jericho to spy out the town's a student in electrical engineering. defenses and how their information proved of The increase in anti-Semitism in Egypt in invaluable assistance to the Jewish leader. the years immediately following the conclu- These efforts by the early Hebrews to employ sion of World War II and the birth of Israel espionage to obtain information about the plans impacted heavily on the country's Jews . Eli and activities of their opponents has its parallels along with all other Jewish students was in the history of the modern State of Israel . forced to leave the university, and his family Among the many extraordinary espionage feats emigrated to Israel . Eli, however, chose to carried out by the secret agents of the latter remain in Egypt, and would not see his family state none can compare in sheer audacity and again for another six years . courage to the exploits of one Eliyahu ben Shaul Anxiety about the safety of his family re- Cohen (better known as Eli Cohen). moved, Eli plunged wholeheartedly into the Eli was born in Alexandria, Egypt on Zionist underground effort to assist Egyptian December 16, 1924 . His parents Shaul and Jews to leave the country (it was dubbed "Op- Sofie Cohen, natives of Aleppo, Syria had been eration Goshen") . His talents were quickly rec- settled in Egypt since 1914, and had raised a ognized and he was recruited by an agent of family of six boys and two girls . Eli was the Mossad, Israel's secret intelligence service, to oldest son, and like his brothers and sisters become a member of a select group of young was brought up as an Orthodox Jew . A gifted Egyptian Jews engaged in intelligence gather- student, Eli attended a religious primary ing and sabotage . school, and later was enrolled in the Midrash Rambam, a center of Talmudic study headed ollowing the overthrow of the Farouk re- by the Chief Rabbi of Alexandria (Moshe Ven- gime (July, 1952) and the ascendancy to tura). During his teens his interests switched powerF of the Free Officers' Group led by Gen- from religious studies to science and mathe- eral Muhammed Naguib, and later Gamal matics, and after winning a coveted scholar- 'Abd-ul Nasser the situation in Egypt took a ship to the French Lycee he gave up his origi- radical turn. The British and American gov- nal plans to be a rabbi . ernments anxious to appease the new ruler of From early childhood Eli Cohen was an ac- the Nile tended to favor a Middle East policy tive participant in Hehalutz, the Zionist pio- that was even more strongly pro-Arab than neering movement . When in 1944 the Haga- previously. Disturbed by this turn of events

16 JEWISH FRONTIER orders were given from Tel Aviv to the Jewish Most importantly, Eli Cohen was given a select group in Egypt to carry out a sabotage new identity and meticulous cover . Henceforth operation in Cairo and Alexandria. The targets he was to be Kamal Amin Taabes, an Arab of included American and British property and Syrian descent. According to the family back- was intended to create tension in the fatuous ground provided by the Mossad, Kamal's father hope that the attacks would be attributed to Amin and mother Saida Ibrahim had left Syria the Egyptian regime and result in the Western years before to seek their fortune in Beirut . Powers moderating their friendly relations Kamal had been born there as well as a sister with Cairo . The capture of one of the saboteurs named Aina (but she had died in infancy) . The resulted in the roundup and arrest of the family had then moved to Egypt, settling group. Two of the ring's members were exe- finally in Alexandria where Kamal spent his cuted, one committed suicide, and the others childhood. The father, however insisted that were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment . the family retain Syrian nationality. In 1947, The incident which became known as the Kamal's uncle invited his father to join him in Lavon Affair (after Israel's Minister of Defense Buenos Aires, Argentina, as a partner in a tex- who was forced to resign as a result of the tile firm . The family moved to Argentina, but failed operation) became a cause celebre which the firm they established went bankrupt . After dominated Israeli politics for many years . the death of his parents Kamal lived with his Fortunately for Eli Cohen, no arrested uncle, and worked in a travel agency . Eventu- member of the Jewish spy ring mentioned his ally he went into business for himself and name . Nevertheless, he was interrogated and achieved financial success as the owner of a imprisoned for four months, but eventually company importing and exporting goods released. Following the Suez War and Sinai between South America and Europe. Campaign of 1956, Eli Cohen was again His training and cover complete, Eli was arrested and detained aboard the prison ship dispatched to Zurich where a Mossad agent Marianis Rosso until January, 1957. Upon his provided him with the passport and other release he was expelled from Egypt and joined essential paperwork identifying him as Kamal his family in Israel . Amin Taabes. He then traveled to Beirut and Cohen found it difficult to adjust to his new from there embarked for Buenos Aires . In home, but as a result of his past experiences Argentina's capital Eli rented an apartment, and knowledge of languages (Arabic, Hebrew, and studied the list of influential Arabs living French and English) he was able to find a job in the city given him by Mossad . One half mil- analyzing and translating for the Ministry of lion Arabs lived in Argentina, and Buenos Defense articles from Arab newspapers and Aires was full of clubs and restaurants where periodicals . The job petered out after a few Syrian, Lebanese, and other Arabs gathered . months, and Eli found employment with a Once settled in, Eli began to frequent Arab chain of supermarkets. It was at this juncture restaurants, cinemas, cultural and political in his life (1959) that he met and married clubs. His charm, self-confidence, intelligence, Nadia, a pretty immigrant from Iraq, a nurse and especially his open purse soon attracted by occupation. several eminent leaders of the Arab colony of Buenos Aires . oon after his marriage Cohen was ap- proached by a senior officer of Mossad and ne evening at the Islamic Club of Buenos offeredS a job with the agency . At first he turned Aires, Eli met a distinguished individual down the offer, but when he found himself once namedO Abdullah Latif Hashan, the editor of again unemployed and his wife pregnant he the largest Arab newspaper in Argentina . accepted the position when approached a sec- Hashan was captivated by "Kamal's" personal- ond time. Six months of intensive training fol- ity and introduced him to other prominent fig- lowed in which he was taught the rudiments of ures in the Arab community. Through Hashan, photography and radio transmission, weapon- Eli became a regular guest at Syrian embassy ry and aircraft recognition and sundry other receptions and cocktail parties . At one such specialized subject matter essential to the field gathering he was introduced to Major Amin Al- of espionage . In addition he was taken to a Hafez, the embassy's military attache . Eli's Moslem sheikh for instruction in the Koran . feigned enthusiasm on behalf of Syrian nation-

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999 17 alism greatly impressed Al-Hafez who invited the coup d'etat of September 28, 1961 which Eli to return with him to Damascus . brought the Baath Party into power. Through In the spring of 1961 Eli visited each of his these contacts Eli met dignitaries of the new Arab acquaintances to inform them he was regime as well as key military men . His new leaving for a business trip to Europe, and that Syrian friends now included among others Lt . afterwards he intended to travel to Damascus Maazi Zaher El-Din, the nephew of the Syrian where he planned to contribute to the immense Army's Chief of Staff; Colonel Salim Hatoum, national task unfolding in Syria . His an- the commander of Syria's crack parachute regi- nouncement was warmly received and he was ment; and George Seif the government's chief showered with letters of recommendation, and propaganda broadcaster on Radio Damascus . names and addresses of relatives, friends, gov- Eli's popularity and prestige increased steadily, ernment officials, businessmen, and promi- helped along by hosting frequent parties, always nent personages . well supplied with liquor, expensive food, Some months later (August, 1961), Eli flew hashish . He also did not neglect his public to Munich, and then to Zurich where he met image . Thus, in one munificent gesture he estab- with a Mossad agent, and after exchanging lished a soup kitchen for the capital city's poor- clothes and passports assumed his true iden- est inhabitants . Indeed, some wealthy Syrian tity. Eli then traveled to Israel for a visit with businessmen were so captivated by Eli's person- his family. After several months at home, Eli ality that they competed with each other to per- informed his family that business required that suade the eligible young man of affairs to select he return to Europe (December, 1961) . Accord- and marry one of their daughters. ingly, he flew to Munich where he was met by While strengthening his Syrian ties, Eli the Mossad operative who returned his docu- somehow managed to find time to improve his ments and other items which identified him as business cover . His import-export establish- Kamal Amin Taabes . In addition, he was pro- ment flourished, and provided some of the vided with a powerful radio transmitter hidden funds and means to successfully carry out his in the false bottom of an electric food mixer . mission . The firm specialized in forwarding an- The cord of his electric shaver served as an tique furniture, backgammon tables, jewelry antenna . Eli was also given codes in invisible and objets d'art to South America and Europe . ink; cyanide tablets disguised as aspirin ; and From his apartment in Damascus, Eli Co- chemicals for making high explosives stored in hen began to transmit to Israel, on a regular toothpaste, and jars of shaving cream. basis, the information he daily picked up from From Munich, Eli made his way to Genoa his various acquaintances in the Syrian gov- where he boarded a vessel bound for Beirut . ernment and the military. The constant radio On board he was met by Sheikh Magd Al-Ard, chatter from the embassies and Syrian Army an international adventurer and well known Headquarters in his neighborhood provided merchant of Damascus. From Lebanon Al-Ard excellent protection for his own radio trans- using his car drove Eli and his equipment to missions. Damascus past customs and border guards Six months after his arrival in Damascus, without being stopped or searched . Eli journeyed back to Argentina ostensibly to renew old friendships among the Arab commu- ~n Damascus, Cohen rented a sumptuous nity which now considered him to be a fierce apartment in the prestigious Abu-Ramma- Syrian nationalist . From Buenos Aires after nah quarter directly across the street from the exchanging identities once again he returned Syrian Army Headquarters . The quarter was to his home in Bat Yam, Israel, for a well de- also the site of numerous foreign embassies served rest. During his stay in Israel he agreed including a U .N. peace-keeping mission, and with his Mossad superiors on an advanced sys- contained the luxurious residences of some of tem for communicating ultra-secret photo- Damascus's wealthiest businessmen and gov- graphs and documents . Henceforth, the micro- ernment officials . film of this material would be hidden in holes Eli, alias Kamal Amin Taabes speedily settled hollowed out of luxurious backgammon boards into his new surroundings . His letters of credit that Eli would send to "friends" in Argentina and introduction gained him entrance to the as presents, and from Buenos Aires it would banking and business circles that had inspired travel to Tel Aviv by diplomatic pouch .

18 JEWISH FRONTIER Back in Damascus, Eli reported on the new tion from power by Al-Hafez had fled to Jor- crisis looming in the country. Indeed, on March dan. Later, Eli was invited by Syrian overseas 8, 1963 a coup d'etat brought the army and radio to broadcast appeals to fellow Syrians their Baath Party supporters into power . Al- living in South America to come home and help Hafez (now a general), Eli's friend from his the Baath Party rebuild their homeland . He days in Buenos Aires became Minister of Inte- used these broadcasts to insert coded mes- rior. In July of that same year a second coup sages to the Mossad . made Al-Hafez President of the Revolutionary Council and absolute master of Syria . Cohen's he information sent by Eli Cohen to Israel circle of Arab friends now found themselves in became increasingly precise and invalu- many of the key posts of the new government ableT . He related items of military importance and in the military hierarchy. such as names and postings of army officers ; sets of orders and military regulations ; maps, li attended the banquet at the President's especially of Syrian fortifications ; weaponry official residence celebrating Al-Hafez's employed by the Syrian Army; types and quan- successionE to power, and used the occasion to tities of ammunition ; political and military further cement his relationship with the Syr- plans; secrets and decisions of the regime; and ian leader. He had given Madame Al-Hafez a the details of the closed sessions of the summit magnificent fur coat supposedly as a sign of meetings held between the heads of the Arab the deep gratitude he felt for his old friend the states of the Middle East. general and his wife . Eli was also careful not to Eli often stated to his Arab friends that he neglect some of the other important function- was skeptical about the readiness of Syria's aries who were present at the banquet. armed forces . As a result of these comments he Cohen in fact had arrived at the peak of his was invited on several occasions to visit and success as an Israeli agent . No door was closed inspect Syrian fortifications along the border to him. He had no difficulty entering a minis- with Israel . As a prospective Minister of De- ter's cabinet office ; he had solid friendships fense he was given during these tours details inside the office of Syria's Army Chief of Staff, of the Syrian combat positions and was shown and even took part as an eminent member in attack and defense plans . After observing the Baath Party meetings . Indeed, his name was build-up on the Golan Heights, Eli made put forward by members of the National Revo- sketches of the bunkers and artillery emplace- lutionary Council for the post of Minister of ments he had observed and transmitted the Information and Propaganda in the upcoming information to the Mossad along with their cabinet realignment. A grateful Al-Hafez went precise coordinates . He was also able to pass even further and suggested to the Revolution- along plans of the entire fortification system ary Council that Eli be groomed for the posi- defending the key Golan Heights town of tion of Minister of Defense by appointing him Kuneitra and a Soviet designed scheme for deputy to the current minister. how the Syrians could cut off the northern part Aware of the dangers inherent in such an of Israel in a surprise attack . In addition, appointment, Eli suggested that he was not Cohen provided his superiors data about the ready for such a great honor and proposed in- Mig 21 fighter planes being supplied by the stead a propaganda tour of Argentina . His pro- Soviets to Syria. posal was accepted and the tour proved a great Throughout 1964, Eli's information proved success in winning sympathy for the Syrian vital to Israel's security. Thus, when in Novem- regime. As a token of his gratitude to the lead- ber of that year Syrian artillery opened fire on ership in Damascus, Eli wrote out a personal Israeli tractors from the Golan Heights, Isra- check of one thousand dollars for President Al- el's reaction was swift, overwhelming, and Hafez, and contributed nine thousand dollars deadly accurate . Later that same year an Arab to the coffers of the Baath Party. summit conference devised a plan to divert the Following his return to Damascus, Eli was headwaters of the Jordan River into Arab ter- entrusted by Al-Hafez with a secret mission of ritory thereby endangering Israel's main the highest importance . He was sent with a water supply and frustrating the Jewish message of reconciliation to the former head of state's plans for the construction of a National Syria, Salah al-Din Bitar who after his evic- Water Carrier. Eli was given instructions to

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999 19 obtain information about the diversion widely known to the arresting officer that scheme. Feigning interest in buying land in Kamal Amin Taabes was a close friend of sev- the area, and learning that his acquaintance eral prominent individuals in the regime, and Colonel Salim Hatoum had been appointed in the army. Nevertheless, acting quickly sixty- commander of the military units responsible nine people were immediately arrested, and for protecting the diversion scheme, Cohen inquiries were made about four hundred other was shown all the plans and blueprints relat- persons who had been in contact with Kamal . ing to the project. He passed this information From an espionage case the affair soon be- on to Israel and in 1965 the latter's airforce came a political scandal as opponents of Presi- carried out a pre-emptive strike against Syr- dent Al-Hafez saw an opportunity to topple his ia's preliminary works at the headwaters com- regime. To protect himself and his friends Al- pletely eliminating the diversion project . Hafez sent Colonel Hatoum and Colonel Sala Israel's National Water Carrier was then com- Dalli to Eli's apartment to take over the inter- pleted from Lake Kinneret to the Negev with- rogation. To the chagrin of Colonel Souweidani out further interference . they transferred the prisoner to the military headquarters of an armored brigade located or several months during the summer of just outside of Damascus . Here Al-Hafez him- 1964 the Syrian security services had be- self questioned Kamal . The latter admitted comeF aware that something was radically that he was not an Arab, and that his real wrong. The alarm had been sounded by an offi- name was Eli Cohen . He also acknowledged cer of the Palestinian section of Syrian army that he was an Israeli operative employed by intelligence who noted that several decisions Mossad. taken at government level during the evening or night had been broadcast by the Israelis the n the four weeks that followed, Eli was sys- very next day. He was also struck by the preci- tematically beaten and brutally tortured . sion of Israeli strikes against Syrian targets . ElectrodesI were placed on his genitals, and in The officer believed that spies were at work . his nostrils, and on other sensitive parts of Suspicions mounted when radio operators at his body, and he was given repeated electric India's embassy complained about radio dis- shocks. In addition, his nails were pulled out turbances which distorted their communica- one by one, and he underwent other refined tions to Delhi. Soviet advisors to the Syrian tortures. At no stage during his ordeal did the intelligence service suggested that somebody Syrians succeed in breaking Eli Cohen's spirit . was sending unauthorized radio messages, When the torture in the military camp finally and several attempts were made without any ended, he was transferred to a civilian prison success to discover the clandestine transmitter . where even the guards and wardens developed Then in the winter of 1965, the Syrians en- a grudging respect for his courage. joyed an incredible stroke of luck . They re- A vast political and diplomatic campaign ceived from the Soviets superior and more effi- was launched to spare Cohen's life. A French cient transmission sets to replace the army's lawyer Maitre Jacques Mercier, who had de- antiquated equipment . To check their effec- fended many Algerian nationalists offered to tiveness it was decided that all other trans- act as Eli's counsel, but when he arrived in mission sets then in use should observe a Damascus he was refused entry to the pris- blackout for twenty-four hours . It was during oner, and his demand for a public trial was re- this latter period that the Syrians detected a jected. Instead, the Syrian regime announced mysterious transmission . Locating the source that Cohen would be tried by a special military was easy as Eli's transmitter was the only one tribunal headed by Colonel Dalli and Colonel operating in the blackout (he was using bat- Hatoum. The latter officers were keenly aware tery power) . that their own reputations and that of the Eight armed men led by one Colonel Ahmed President, Al-Hafez were at stake . Proceedings Souweidani, Chief of Counter-Intelligence were held behind closed doors and Cohen was broke into Cohen's apartment and found him not allowed a defense counsel . The heads of the beside his transmitter. Panic ensued as the tribunal were both prosecutors and judges . agents did not know if they had uncovered a Selected portions of the trial were shown on network or a lone operator. Moreover, it was television. The trial was short, and a verdict

20 JEWISH FRONTIER

quickly rendered . Eli Cohen was condemned to death by hanging . Pleas for mercy poured in from all over the Time for world. Cardinal Felcius of Buenos Aires on his death bed sent a personal letter to President Al-Hafez asking him to regard his plea for the life of Cohen as being the last wish of a dying man. Other appeals for a commutation of the RENEWAL1999 will be a challenging year for the en- death sentence came from such prominent per- tire world . Historic changes around the globe sonages as Pope Paul VI ; Bertrand Russell; are almost daily occurrences . To keep pace the former Premiers of France, Edgar Faure with these events - especially as they impact and Anthony Pinay ; Charles de Gaulle ; the on Israel and the Jewish people - JEWISH Premier of Belgium, Camille Huysman and FRONTIER will continue its policy of present- the country's Queen Mother, Elizabeth ; the ing background and analysis of these mo- Prime Minister of Canada, John Diefenbacher ; mentous developments . twenty-two members of the British Parlia- ment; the International Red Cross, and scores 1999 is the right time to expand the ranks of other individuals . of readers of JEWISH FRONTIER . To begin with - let's all renew our sub- he State of Israel, in particular, made scriptions as the date of renewal comes many offers to the Syrians to gain Cohen's around . Tfreedom. They offered to exchange all Syrian prisoners in return for a commutation of the And how about gift subscriptions to those death sentence . The Syrians refused . Other young adults in your circle who would find suggestions also fell on deaf ears. In one last much enlightenment and excitement in our desperate attempt to save their master spy the pages. Israelis sent a French army officer, a personal AFTER ALL - THIS IS YOUR friend of Al-Hafez to Damascus . He carried JEWISH FRONTIER! with him a check for a million dollars, and a letter promising to deliver to Syria tractors, Please use the form below for that new bulldozers, medical supplies, and ambulances subscriber . . . if Eli Cohen's life would be spared . Al-Hafez, more concerned with his own survival, refused Subscription Form to see the French officer . JEWISH FRONTIER On May 18, 1965 in the middle of the night 275 Seventh Avenue•17thFloor Cohen was clothed in a long white robe and New York, NY 10001 dragged to the Square of Martyrs (El Margo PLEASE ENTER MY SUBSCRIPTION Square) in Damascus . Rabbi Nissim Andalbo, TO THE JEWISH FRONTIER TODAY! Chief Rabbi of Syria tried to comfort him, and YES he was allowed to write a farewell letter to his Name (Print) family. Then wrapped by the attending sol- diers in an enormous parchment sheet, on Address which his sentence was inscribed he was hanged . Syria refused to surrender his body City State Zip to his family (the traces of torture could not be erased). He was buried in the Jewish cemetery Subscription for 1 Year (6 issues) $15 .00* of Damascus . An attempt made by Israeli 2 Years (12 issues) $25.00* agents to retrieve his body was aborted when the group was discovered and pursued by bor- Check enclosed : $ der guards . In Israel, Eli Cohen is still remembered as * For CANADA : add $2 .50 per year. Other Foreign countries: $20 .00 per year. Payment in U .S . Dollars one of the boldest and most successful espion- only. Bank with U .S. branches suggested ; or age agents in history and a number of streets, International money orders . squares and parks bear his name . 0

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999 21 ertzberg displays a strong attachment to

BOOKS

Too Many Abrahams?

Jews : The Essence and Character of a People . By Arthur Hertzberg and Aron Hirt-Manheimer . Harper/San Francisco, 294 pp . 25 . Reviewed by Haim Chertok .

S ince even doodles by Arthur Hertzberg is the belief that Jews "bear a distinct moral would not be utterly bereft of interest, I opened message to the world ." Consequently, no mat- Jews: The Essence and Character of a People ter how debased our external condition, the with high expectation . And indeed, the central belief that the Jewish people subsist on a portion of his study, where he hangs a pro- higher moral plane has sustained us . cession of celebrated Jews out to dry on a his- Jews, Hertzberg concludes, are inherently torical timeline, exposed to the intellectual critical of received wisdom and authority, both warmth of his considerable wit and judgment, external or communal . From this he derives is very good . The figures range from Uriel da our endemic factionalism . Accordingly, Father Costa, Shabbtai Zvi, and Baruch Spinoza to Abraham should be viewed as the prototypical . Rosa Luxembourg, Franz Kafka, Rosenzweig, Jew less because he exemplifies faithfulness to and Allen Stuart Konigsberg . In a few deft God but rather because he destroys his father's strokes Hertzberg places each in his/her bio- idols . The Jewish people did not disappear cen- historical context, then offers a boldfaced char- turies ago, Hertzberg feels, because of a native acterization . Karl Marx, for example, is "Luther intransigence, "a wild streak" of defiance in Red." which at times has eventuated in rebellion, For Hertzberg at his best, consider his per- elsetimes led to martyrdom . Furthermore, at fect-pitch portrayal of the meaning of the critical historical junctures again and again career of Leon Trotsky from a Jewish slant : the Jewish people have succeeded in reinvent- "Ever since Spinoza, some of the most brilliant ing who and what they are . and daring Jewish thinkers conceived of a new world in which there would be neither Jew nor gentile. But this dream of universality was de- H nineteenth century Polish historian Nach- nounced everywhere by the old elites and by man Krochmal, proponent of the periodicity of the mob as a Jewish plot against the existing Jewish historical experience : cycles of birth, order of society. These Bronsteins who wanted ascents to heights, and descents to depths . The to be Trotskys were hated all the more because uniqueness of the Jewish historical trajectory they were demanding of the Gentiles that they, is that it follows these paths not once or twice, too, surrender their past ." like all other peoples, but again and again and Unfortunately, to mediate his perception of again . To this the author appends a Hertzberg his exemplary Jews, Hertzberg feels con- "corollary": the mass of Jews are forever poised strained to range them within a set of struc- between "those who want to continue the voy- turalist categories which sometimes raise far age through stormy seas and those who jump greater difficulties than they resolve . So what, ship into calmer waters" (the Elie Wiesels ver- at bottom, has Hertzberg to say about "the es- sus the Families Albright) . sence and character" of the Jewish people? In A final paradox : despite millennial longings brief, although every era has borne witness to for redemption to the Promised Land, since the defectors who, preferring an easier life, have destruction of the First Temple a permanent drawn toward the host culture, a saving Jew- Diaspora has been a salient feature of Jewish ish remnant has always embraced the ambiva- history. Jews, he suggests, were originally no- lent pleasures of chosenness, the core of which mads, and something of the wanderer has

22 JEWISH FRONTIER.

never left the soul of the Jewish people . More a scandalous Jewish wildness is the root cause convincingly, Jews carry on because, "they re- of antisemitism . fuse to break the link to their collective past." Since the above conception of Jewish peo- ith the exception of Martin Buber and plehood is conventional, wherefore the extra- Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, both of them ordinary claim voiced in its introduction that it productsW of the Diaspora, not a single Israeli breaks a long-held taboo? "Do the Jews make succeeds in crashing Hertzberg's party . Con- any contribution to anti-Semitism?," sidering the book's stated theme, this reflects Hertzberg airs rhetorically . "The answer is more than passing parochialism . I think any- fundamentally and unavoidably, yes . Their one who has resided for a time in Israel, where contribution to Jew-hatred is that they insist heterogeneity is the overriding impression, on being Jews ; by definition they [like Father would hoot the notion of a specifically Jewish Abraham] challenge the dominant dogmas ." character, an hypothetical essence, right off I reread this formulation not once or twice the stage. The fact is that the pretentiousness but many times . Aiming, perhaps, to expose of this book's subtitle wars with its substantial the groundlessness of antisemitism, had achievement . Not content with a parade of in- Hertzberg taken recourse in reductionist tau- cisive, bracing, discrete portraits of historical tology? Or even parody? Not a bit . How then Jewish personages, the author has over- was he not implicitly endorsing the otherwise reached himself . He has succumbed to the repulsive notion that abrasive, unlovable, con- temptation of viewing himself as a contempo- trarian, hypercritical, offensive tendencies rary Abraham, a breaker of Jewish idols . were embedded within the essential character I say "author", but the crux of shared au- of the Jewish people? Should antisemitism not thorship may underlie some of these concep- then be viewed as an inevitable, logical, indeed tual tensions . Albeit in small print, Aron Hirt- justifiable development? Can such a reductio Manheimer, long-time editor of Reform Juda- ad absurdum possibly be the bottom line of a ism, is credited as "co-author." The introduc- lifetime of meditation and study on the mys- tion asserts, in fact, that the book was "his tery of Jewish survival? idea." Yet with the exception of a single entry On my most recent trip to New York, I ac- referring to "we" who had "completed the last companied my mother to a crowded cemetery few pages of this chapter early in the morning" in Queens where for more than an hour we (p. 239), the entire text is rendered in first per- gazed at tombstones in her parents' family son singular in a voice any attentive reader plot. We walked among the tombstones in- would immediately identify as Hertzberg's . scribed with the names of Joe Kammerman, Well, collaborations are a tricky business . In- Haim Avodya Dohrman, Mathew Dohrman, asmuch as the core of my unease with Jews is Samuel Weisel, Hilda Weingarten, and a score that it reads like two books bound in uneasy of others who will never rate passing mention wedlock, my conjecture is that this one was in anyone's historical account of the Jewish something of a mismatch . F-1 people. They lie among tens of thousands of other mostly forgotten Jewish immigrants to America . That something in their "essence and character," some "wild streak" significantly With her family, we mourn contributed to antisemitism strikes me as both ludicrously misconceived and downright the loss of our dear friend offensive. Why should Woody Allen provide the author with a more exemplary Jewish character type AVIVA KAUFMAN PENN than, say, my grandmother Mary Weisel or her sister Gussie Dohrman, dead these many decades, or, for that matter, than the author's own father to whom he refers with such loving respect in the course of his pages? Perhaps mistakenly, I am driven to conjecture what The Bardin Family may underlie the nonsensical hypothesis that

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999 Messianism, Zionism and Jewish Religious Radicalism . By Aviezer Ravitsky, translated by Michael Swirsky and Jonathan Chipman. University of Chicago Press, 312 pp . hardcover, $48 ; paper- back, $17.95 . 1996. Reviewed by Jack Fischel.

he establishment of the State of Israel in in exile despite "the beginning of the ingather- T1948 marked the return of the Jewish people to ing of the exiles" that accompanied the birth of their ancestral homeland after almost 2,000 Israel . Drawing on the sermons of such ultra- years of exile . The fact that this was accom- orthodox luminaries as the late Lubavitcher plished by secular Zionists and not the work of Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneer- the Messiah created a theological crisis among sohn, Ravitsky tells us ; Orthodox Jewry in its response to the creation "They unequivocally reject . . . any reality that is not of the Jewish state . Ravitsky, who is the chair- messianic . . . For exile is not a geographic condition man of the Department of Jewish Thought at that can be overcome by aliyah and settlement Hebrew University, tells us in his thoughtful alone. Neither is exile a political condition that can be corrected by the attainment of national sover- and important book, that the world of Orthodox eignty. . . . "Because of our sins we were exiled from Judaism is divided on the theological meaning our land" and "Israel will be redeemed only by of the Jewish state . Although the Torah is the repentance." binding source that unites Orthodoxy, the mat- ter of Israel's founding has resulted in scrip- Ravitsky finds the source of this response to tural differences . the creation of Israel in both the Midrash and Although for many Jews the belief in a the Talmud . According to these sources, the messiah is peripheral to their Judaism, this is Jewish people were made to swear an oath not the case with the ultra-Orthodox . As Rav- that "Israel would not ascend the wall from itsky informs us, among the Haredi and other exile", that they "would not force the end" . Orthodox groups, Israel's founding in 1948 Only when the Messiah appeared would the evinced a response whose reverberations con- exile come to an end, and it was deemed a tinue to be felt in the present-day Jewish state . grievous sin to force the ingathering of the For example, did the creation of Israel flout Jewish people through human effort . As a con- the belief which holds that only the Messiah sequence ultra-orthodox rabbis who shared could restore the Jews to their homeland, or the metaphysical messianic theology con- was the founding of Israel the beginning of the demned Zionism as the work of Satan and bit- process leading to the redemption of the Jew- terly opposed the movement . ish people? One response was that of the Haredim, or here were, however, other Orthodox rabbis those ultra-Orthodox Jews who continue to who offered alternative interpretations on view life in Eretz Israel as a continuation of theT meaning of the oaths . The so-called "har- exile. As the author informs us, one segment of bingers" of Zionism, such as Rabbi Judah Al- the Haredi, the Neturei Karta, opposes the kalai and Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer, argued existence of the State of Israel because of their that a proper understanding of the oaths belief that only when the Messiah comes can called for the Jews to initiate the days of the Jewish people be redeemed from exile . redemption through the resettlement of Zion They not only refuse to recognize the legiti- as the preliminary step in the process leading macy of the Jewish state but have actively to the coming of the Messiah. Both rabbis be- courted the Arab enemies of Israel . On the came strong advocates for a return of the Jews other end of the ultra-Orthodox spectrum are to Eretz Israel, and are rightly considered the the accommodationist non-Zionists who main- founders of religious Zionism . tain that the Jewish people continue to remain Between the views of those ultra-Orthodox

2 1 AMISH FRONTIER

Jews who rejected the legitimacy of Israel, and he ideology of messianic determinism as the religious Zionists, who cooperated in the evinced by Gush Emunim and other ultra- Zionist effort, was the messianic theological orthodoxT groups, combined with the secular school associated with the Merkaz ha-Rav nationalism of the Israeli Right, has created a Yeshiva, and the teaching of the late Rabbi Zvi serious obntacle to the future of the peace Yehuda Kook (1891-1981). Rav Kook, one of process . Inasmuch as many on the Israeli the most influential religious sages of our Right refuse to concede territory in the West time, attempted to explain both the meaning of Bank becauee it is part of the boundaries of the Holocaust and the creation of Israel in historical Israel, they find a common bond messianic terms . For Kook, the Holocaust was with those among the ultra-Orthodox who op- God's way of rooting out a debased Jewish cul- pose "land for peace" for scriptural reasons . ture, the culture of exile. He explained the Newsweek (April 20, 1998) recently pub- catastrophe as "a deeply hidden, internal sur- lished an essay on the question of "Whose gery aimed at bringing the Jews to the land of Israel Is It?", with the thesis that Israel, in the Israel against their will ." For Rav Kook and near future, may possibly become a religious his followers, the two events proved that the country. The article pointed to a birthrate messianic age was at hand, whereby God used among the Orthodox, which is three times that the secular leadership of the Zionist movement of their secular counterparts, and to the many as his instrument to bring about the promised nonreligious Jews who are leaving the Jewish redemption. In this sense, Rav Kook viewed state, only to be replaced by religious Jews the agnostic and secular leadership of the Jew- making aliyah to Israel . In fact, some Israeli ish state as unwitting agents of God's will . pundits think that the religious-oriented Shas Although the followers of Rav Kook support party could eventually overtake Likud as the the Jewish state, their differences with the leading voice of the right. If true, what do secular Zionists in regard to the raison d'etre these projections portend for Israel's future? for Israel's existence was quite profound . Unlike the ultra-Orthodox Jews, who do not Whereas the Zionist movement sought to nor- recognize the state of Zionism, most Orthodox malize the condition of the Jewish people Jews are not focused on the imminent coming through the creation of a nation state, the fol- of the Messiah or the expectation that the End lowers of Rav Kook viewed the Jewish state as of Days is upon. us. Nevertheless, the ultra- a step leading to the End of Days . Orthodox represent a constituency who are For Rav Kook, the State of Israel was a motivated by these considerations. This, in divine creation and as a consequence he wrote, turn, raises the question as to whether mes- "there can be no retreat from a single kilom- sianic fervor is compatible with the peace eter of the land of Israel . . ." Among his disci- process because, despite their relatively small ples in the Gush Emunim settler's movement, numbers, the ultra-Orthodox are determined there can be no backtracking in the process of not to surrender an inch of the land of Israel . redemption. Ravitsky quotes the following Ravitsky's timely and revealing book sheds from an executive of the Gush Emunim leader- light on this aspect of Israeli political culture ship: "we must educate ourselves to the fact that is often overlooked in the search . for peace that there is no such thing as withdrawal, any between Israel and the Palestinians . LI more than there are such things as ghosts." It is this type of religious messianic fervor that provided the context that produced Yigal Amir, Nave an urgent document or package to/from ISRAEL? Send it with us for guaranteed Yitzhak Rabin's assassin . Admittedly an delivery within 36 hours . extreme act, the assassination was not so extreme from the perspective of those who be- cosdll couriers Inc. lieve that any Israeli government that "sur- 147-40 184th Street, Jamaica. NV 11413 renders" territory in the age of redemption, is Cad 718 . 244 . 7356 or 800 . 695 . 1213 Fox 718-244-7870 guilty of the most unpardonable sin, the alien- In Israel call Avi at 03-512-6649 ation of the Jewish people from the land that The fastest courier service for all your shipments to/from Israel God has promised them .

.JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999 IN MEMORIAM

Aviva Kaufman Penn

Eulogy delivered by Elaine S . Mann at funeral services for Aviva Kaufinan Penn, Temple Sinai, Washington, D .C. December 27, 1998

can't imagine a world without Aviva. served as a courier for the Haganah because IIt goes on, of course, but it will be a poorer the British were less likely to intercept a preg- place, less loving, less caring, without that spe- nant American. She infused Jay with her love cial spirit which warmed the cold places . of Zionism and Israel. As he rose in the leader- I have been asked to speak about Aviva's ship of American Reform Judaism, Rabbi Jay role in the Jewish community. As both volun- Kaufman freely credited Aviva and her family teer and professional, her achievements were with teaching him the love of Zion which ulti- inseparable from that unique human being mately moved the Reform movement toward which was Aviva . She loved the Jewish people, its present deep involvement with Israel . the Jewish state, the Jewish community but, Aviva seemed to know everybody . Loving above all, she genuinely loved the Jews, indi- and caring friendships were accumulated vidually and collectively . She truly believed throughout her life . She refused nobody and that all Jews are family, responsible one for nobody could refuse her. Aviva was simply irre- the other, and lived that belief. sistible, but she never seemed to know it nor At an Israel Philharmonic Orchestra con- trade on it. It was just there, as natural as the cert at the Kennedy Center many years ago, sun and the moon and the stars . Wife, mother, I remember feeling somewhat bemused by the daughter, sister, family linchpin, friend, com- loud and voluble Jewish audience, not at all munity leader, social worker, teacher, student, like the rather sedate concertgoers one nor- creative professional - it was all of a piece, mally sees . Aviva, however, glowed. Her Jews, integrated into a life of such high ethical stan- her Israel Philharmonic - together in this dards that we may always measure our actions wonderful setting. What could be better? by "What would Aviva think?" "What would Aviva do?" viva and her sisters Sham and Pnina grew Following Jay's untimely death in 1971, A up in an intensely Jewish home - Labor Robert Weiner, Executive Director of the Jew- Zionist, Hebraist, Yiddishist, traditional, cul- ish Community Center of Greater Washington, tural, community activist . Her father, Yosef hired Aviva as the Center's first Director of Gootman, is remembered in the annals of Jew- Outreach. The Center had recently moved onto ish education for mortgaging his printing busi- its first-in-the-nation community campus, lo- ness to save the Cincinnati Talmud Torah . As a cated in suburban Maryland, and saw its teenager, Aviva experienced the turmoil and responsibility to reach out to a growing metro- deprivation of 1930's Palestine as a student at politan area . Aviva went beyond any narrow the famed Herzlia Gymnasium, then served as boundaries, establishing contacts with and head of Habonim in Cincinnati. As a newlywed providing services to small outlying communi- in the years leading up to the establishment of ties such as Leonardtown, Frederick, Hagers- the State of Israel, she returned with her hus- town and many others . They were Jews, band, Jay, as students at the Hebrew Univer- weren't they, and they - and particularly sity. Pregnant with Gideon, her firstborn, she their children - needed to feel part of the

ss JEWISH FRONTIER

larger family. Aviva took a leave of absence from the Jew- Aviva's creative imagination and boundless ish Community Center to go to Israel to care energy during her professional service at for her younger sister Pnina, a widow with the Center brought us the Shtetl Fair, demon- three young sons . Aviva was at the height of strating how this new campus setting could her professional accomplishments in Washing- be transformed into a huge inclusive indoor- ton but, for her, there was no question . Pnina outdoor community event connecting a new needed her. The leave of absence stretched into American generation to its Eastern European many long months and Aviva never returned Jewish roots . She followed this success by to her career. reaching out to the far smaller Sephardic Jew- Aviva's devotion to the Jewish community ish community to develop the Sephardic Festi- was a constant thread woven into her life . val. The Festival energized the largely neglec- She served for many years on the Board of the ted Sephardic community which plunged into Jewish Community Council and on the Board the project with all the vigor and talents we of Temple Sinai, which was her congregation have now come to expect of them . Its success for most of the 33 years she lived in Washing- gave them a pride and recognition which they ton. She was devoted to Jewish education and had never enjoyed before . served on the Board of Jewish Education . She When the first Jews started to trickle into was active in shaping the Foundation for Washington from the Soviet Union in the Jewish Studies and was proud of its role in 1970's, it was Aviva who befriended them . bringing outstanding scholars to Washington . They were, after all, long-lost family, who She retained her commitments to Habonim, needed to be reclaimed for a Jewish future . Na'amat, and the Labor Zionist Alliance She maintained that commitment throughout throughout her life . She served as Chair- her life, both to the larger cause and, as in all woman for Volunteers for the Gathering of things, to the individual Jews themselves . Holocaust Survivors in 1983 . Aviva main- tained an active commitment to B'nai Brith, viva was the professional sent by the Jew- to the American Friends of the Hebrew Uni- A ish Community Center to determine if versity, and to ARZA . In the Washington com- there was an interest in creating a center for munity, she was a volunteer and great sup- the growing Northern Virginia Jewish commu- porter of UJA Federation and was a passion- nity. An attempt several years before had ate advocate for the essential role it plays in failed, but Aviva plunged into the effort with our community - among the many values her customary energy. She won the trust of the she shared with her beloved second husband, congregations and the friendship of a new gen- Matthew Penn . eration of leadership . Aviva shepherded the Some might say that Aviva never met a Jew creation of the Northern Virginia Jewish Com- or a Jewish organization she didn't like . But munity Center and, even after indigenous that would not be true . She hated coercion and leadership took over, maintained a loving extremism in Jewish life . She loved K'lal Yis- interest and involvement. rael and supported the right of every Jew to She then turned to the Jewish community find his or her own path . How appropriate it in the District of Columbia . Many of its resi- was that her last night on American soil was dents felt abandoned when the Center and the wonderful evening less than two weeks ago other Jewish institutions followed the majority at the Embassy of Israel when she was hon- of the Jewish community to the suburbs . In ored with the Alumni Achievement Award by addition, many young adults had moved to the American Friends of the Hebrew Univer- D.C. to pursue professional careers . There sity. Aviva was radiant, surrounded by family were indeed Jews living in D .C. and they need- and friends. Her acceptance speech was her ed to be served and included . Aviva used her eloquent credo . Who could have imagined that genius in relationships, her incredible energy, would be the last time? and her boundless professional talents to en- We are all Aviva's yorshiin - her inheritors . sure the creation of the DCJCC . Both centers She has left us the example of her life - a life were her babies . She took such pride in their well-lived, suffused with love and commitment achievements . and responsibility. 0

JANUARY/FERRI TARY 1999 2 7 IN THE MOVEMENT

Garin 2000 The Real Deal By Ezra Weinberg

he final week December, 1998, deserves port about us to the Tel Aviv office? toT be long remembered as a turning point for However, the tension was broken with some the Labor Zionist movement in America . lighter moments . One discussion led Josh Mazkir Jared Matas opened Habonim Dror's Cohen to remark that "We should rename the annual bi-national Winter Seminar with a dec- movement book from `Builders and Dreamers' laration that : "Historic moments are not pre- to `Sitters and Talkers' ." Another example of determined . Historic moments happen when this biting humor is evident in an excerpt from people like us make them happen ." This set the Shabbat oneg (play) from Seminar : the tone for a truly transforming seminar . Anna: I want to know about this Labor Zi- Before any transforming event there needs to onism. Tell me about it. be unrest and discomfort in the minds and Shani: Well., we sit and talk about doing hearts of a critical mass of people . There was things. plenty. Many seminar veterans brought with Anna: And then you do them? them a cynical attitude towards these annual Sham: Heavens, no!! Then we educate kids seminars. Some felt that the seminars do little about the activism that we don't do, to solve our most immediate problem - a seri- and then reminisce about it . Anna: That's great . I want in on some of ous leadership crisis . Others complained about that action . the lack of dugma ishit (personal example) from movement leaders, as well as the rapid But then it happened . Maybe it was the attrition rate of our leadership . There was a rikud on Friday night that brought the mem- widespread feeling of unrest and instability in bers to life . Maybe it was the seminar's theme the hearts of the members of HDNA regarding of "Building a personal relationship with Is- the future of their movement. Difficult discus- rael" with peulot (activities) topics such as Ha- sions were held until the early hours of the bonim Dror personal reflection and the Israel morning, concerning the movement malaise . connection through art and spirituality, which "The expansion of our machanot is having a contributed to the atmosphere. Perhaps people vacuuming effect on the ideology," one chavera were just tired of complaining, but something said as others nodded in agreement . People made the mood shift again . A sense of hope are no longer attracted to the ideological mes- arose from the Shabbat ruach (energy) and sage in our movement. "The salience of pro- chaverim began to respond . Something made gressive Zionism and social justice within that movement members reevaluate their commit- framework of old style chalutzic kibbutznikim ment to the movement . From that point, each has expired," said another chaver . individual was taking personal responsibility The worst part was that Habonim Dror for the current movement crisis . Habonim World Mazkir Silvio Joskovitch flew in from Dror was our movement and only we could Israel and caught us at our moment of despair . sustain it in its hour of need . Now we could all feel guilty and personally re- sponsible to why Habonim Dror just isn't liv- And then something happened - Garin Al- ing up to its potential . What would Silvio re- .L payim (2000). Individuals found a way to

2s JEWISH FRONTIER

turn their frustration into action . All the previ- a half away from our big move, with countless ous negativity shifted into a positive force. The hours' work ahead of us . We face many chal- movement was moving . No longer were we just lenges . We have many decisions to make about sitting and talking. our garin . We need more members . We need First it was Jared Matas and Shani Fried- more money. We need a place to live in Israel . man. They put themselves out on a limb and But above all, we need support . With the help announced the formation of the Garin . It did of modern technology, we have been able to dis- not take long for other chaverim to respond seminate the news pretty quickly . and the response was overwhelming . As Maz- We have faxed and e-mailed our Garin dec- kir Olami Silvio remarked afterwards, new laration to all corners of the Labor Zionist garin members popped up "Kmo Pitriot acha- world, and beyond . Old and new members of rei Ha Geshem" (like mushrooms after the the t'nua (movement) have already started rain) . In two momentous hours, Jared and sending us words of support, offers of help and Shani were joined by David Mozersky, Lisa suggestions . If this initial wave of support Caldes, Dan Cohen, Shira Shlesinger, Robin from the larger Habonim and LZA community Merkel, as well as myself, as we transformed is any indication of what's to come, we have all Garin 2000 from two people moving to Israel to the reason in the world to feel confident that a real Garin of eight people, with a Shlav Bet Garin 2000 is the real deal . 11 (second group) already in the works . Shaliach Merkazi David Lehrer, teasing me Ezra Weinberg is a member of Habonim Dror North America, and Garin 2000 . He is currently in his before I joined, asked "Do you want to remem- final year of studies at Hampshire College in ber this historic moment watching it from the Amherst, MA . sidelines or do you want to tell your grandchil- dren that you were one of the people on that day who decided to do something that day?" I knew all along I was going to join, but some- times it's hard to say yes . I didn't want to feel pressured . I tried to make pro and con lists in my head. A Survivor's Legacy to Then the moment came . Her Children Garin Alpayim was having its very first real By Judith Sherman meeting, right in front of me . I was sitting on the outside of the circle . "Move over, Shani," Bread, always bread ; I said. "I'm in." It was just that easy. Stars that lighten the heavens - not brand The rest of the seminar was a euphoric ex- your chests ; perience. Concocting and signing a press re- always, always - water; lease for Garin 2000 were formalities that con- Trains to journeys of delight - with seats, tributed to even more Garin enthusiasm . My windows, name was now in print . I am committed to go- tickets of return ; ing to Israel to live in a communal lifestyle in no accent; the most idealistic way imaginable . But it felt fathers to hold your children's hand ; right. All the goals of the Garin - to work for children who outgrow their shoes : social change and co-existence, to live a social- your mantle of "Jew" - ist-Zionist life, to actualize ideology - are syn- of cloth so light onymous with personal goals that I have been so safe developing for a long time . Because I'm cur- so Kol b'Seder; rently at Hampshire College studying coexis- mothers - oh yes - mothers - tence, peace-building and conflict transforma- mothers you can stand up to! tion, I always knew that I would end up in Is- Israel to fill your soul . rael putting these skills to use where they are needed the most . Garin 2000 gives me the op- and what of Auschwitz memory? portunity to actualize my ideology under the that too is in your legacy . best possible circumstances . Judith Shernian, a survivor of the Camps, is a practicing Now comes the next step. We are a year and therapist in Cranbury, NJ.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 19579 29

The International Institute at Bet Berl The newly restructured Insti- tion practices, and democratic House - all of which are engaged tute for International Develop- trade union organization, to in dialogues, seminars, training ment, at Bet Berl (near Kfar assist in their own nation-build- courses and joint publications Saba) is a truly unique institu- ing. Almost 50,000 graduates, between Israel and its Arab tion which offers courses and from more than 140 countries, neighbors, as well as between training to emerging leaders in represent a vital bridge-building Israel and other countries all Africa, Asia, Latin America, East- asset for Israel. over the world. By bringing to- ern Europe, the former Soviet The International Institute gether people from Egypt, Jor- Union and the Arab world. The includes the Levinson Centre for dan, Mauritania and Palestine it Institute grants scholarships to Adult Education, the Jewish- is making a contribution to ad- participants who study Israel's Arab Institute for Regional Coop- vancing peace and social justice economic, social and political in- eration with Palestine and Arab - for the mutual benefit of all stitutions. community organiza- States; and the Arab Publishing people. El

Greetings from The International Institute in Kfar Saba, Israel . Building bridges between Israel and emerging countries . Adding its strength to the search for peace . Helping build the civil society.

A project of the National Committee for Labor Israel

~" W&Y= 0&1~ President Executive57~~~ Director 275 Seventh Avenue • New York, New York 10001 Laborlsrael@jon .cjfny .org • www .laborlsrael .org

30 JEWISH FRONTIER POETRY - By Edmund Pennant

The Conference Flying Kites in Pelham*

ike absent-minded kisses e cord zipped out, frantic to give touchedL to the mezuzah Tthe scarlet kite the altitude it needed the yearned-for arrival to sail high above the bay, while we of mountain winds spoke of the dilemmas of every Age cooling Jerusalem trying to transcend its own perversities, and what was in Trotsky's mind the moment are noticed and then before the alpenstock entered his skull, taken for granted his last illumination. This park after the furnace breath with its old sycamores, was our first of the chamsin trysting place when the isobars of history laid the city low for days . went skittering towards doom while habit still played cat's cradle with hope . The mayor has put himself to bed It was here we first heard the shots with a headache, the conference outside the telephone building in Barcelona, was terrible, his own people first felt the despair of Guadalajara . strident, irascible, It was here we let our kites bite insultingly blunt, their own umbilicals when the wind brought the unmistakable howls from the cells while the Arabs of Lubianka and we knew it was time overdid themselves - to quit playing and understand why patient and unctuous, Ben-Gurion willing to ignore a slur fainted when he heard of the death of after last month's terrorist Arlosoroff. bombing in the slink. *Pelham Parkway is in the Bronx, N .Y

Susan Hattis Rolef, a political scientist, is Haim Chertok resides in the Negev town our regular Israeli correspondent . of Yeroham . His newest volume is Israeli Pre- Misha Louvish is a historian and veteran occupations . He writes for the Jerusalem Post . Israeli journalist . Edmund Pennant has appeared frequent- David Rosenthal is a frequent contributor ly in Jewish Frontier. His latest collection of to Jewish Frontier and the Yiddisher Kemfer . poems, Askance and Strangely, has been pub- Dr. Jack Fischel is chairman of the De- lished by Orchises Press . partment of History at Millerville University. Elaine Mann of Bethesda, Maryland, His latest book is Holocaust, published by recently retired from a top executive post at the Greenwood Press, 1998. Washington Jewish Community Center . Joseph Adler, a historian, is the author of The Herzl Paradox and of Restoring the Jews to Their Homeland .

.JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999 31

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