July 2013

Reader’s Guide: Leibel Fein Collection From Rabbi David Saperstein (Director, Religious Action Center)

In every generation, there arise figures of influence that reshape the Jewish community. Sometimes they are public intellectuals, sometimes institution builders, sometimes analysts, sometimes power brokers. Rarely does one person embody all of these qualities – and more.

Welcome to Leonard (Leibel) Fein, whose remarkable writings the Berman Jewish Policy Archive features this month. Leibel’s 1950s book on the government of the new Jewish State was a standard for a generation. His 1960s Reform is a Verb helped shape the Reform Jewish Movement as it grew to be the largest stream in American Jewish life. His 1970s creation with Elie Wesel of “Moment Magazine,” which became one of American Jewry’s most influential sources of Jewish ideas, launched Leibel’s role as the most influential liberal ideologue in American Jewish life. His 1980s creation of “Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger” as well as the 2000s launch of the “ National Jewish Coalition for Literacy” testified to the ability of an individual to create lasting new institutions that captured the imagination of the Jewish community. In a lifetime of speeches, he inspired two generations of American Jewish leaders who heard and responded to his clarion calls to justice.

And above all, his writing is elegant in the poetic quality of its language, incisive and brave in its analysis of the human condition, Jewish life and politics in America and Israel, and always morally inspiring. So enjoy the wisdom of this Jewish intellectual Renaissance man and the distinctive voice of his writings that continues to enlighten, entertain, illuminate and inform. From Dr. Leonard “Leibel” Fein

My first reaction when I browse through this collection is: Gulp. It’s all here – the musings, the crafted essays, the memorable and evocative, the by the way and the very by the way. My life (minus the books).

I think especially of how frequently I yearned to hit just the right image, idea, even word, and missed – and those too rare occasions when the words, as if by magic, came out exactly as they were intended. I’ve never been sure whether the mot juste is the product of an altered state of consciousness or a heightened state of consciousness, but in the end it doesn’t much matter. The truth is, I love the process – loved it more back in the days of the typewriter, when I could watch the pile of typed-on paper grow, a thrill now tempered by the computer and its ongoing invitation to change here, change there, edit and edit, altogether too easy. Yet internally, of course, I continue to sweat, life as ongoing marathon, no finish line, God willing, until death do us part.

What it all adds up to is for others to decide. What remains for me to say is how grateful I am to Seth Chalmer and the folks at the Berman Jewish Policy Archive – in particular my dear friend, Steve Cohen – for wrestling all this into a more or less orderly collection. Identity & Continuity

Studying Jewish Identity | , 1966

University Life and Judaism | National Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, 1966

Some Consequences of Jewish Intermarriage | Jewish Social Studies, 1971

Translating Jewish Commitment into Practice Journal of Jewish Communal Service, September 1975

Speech on the Demography of | 1977

From Integration to Survival: American Jewish Anxieties in Transition Co-authored with Steven M. Cohen, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, July 1985

The Soul of a New Magazine | Moment, November 1985

Address to The Hebrew University on Who is a Jew | December 27, 1988

Lies, Damned Lies, and Intermarriage | Draft for the Forward, 1991

Speech to the New York on Peoplehood and Continuity | June 1992

Speech to the Harvard Hillel on Survival vs. Continuity in September 1992

What Connects Us To One Another? | Forward, November 2012

Reader’s Guide: Leibel Fein Collection

Reform is a Verb UAHC, August 1971

Charisma Is Not Enough CCAR Journal, 1973

Reform is a Conjunction 1984

Speech to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations on The Shape and Future of Reform Judaism October 9, 1988

Remarks to the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism on Creating a Legacy for this Generation of American Jewry 1995

Address to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations Biennia November 1997

Kosovo and the Reform Jewish Movement Draft, 1999

CHIP (The UAHC Chai Investment Program) Draft, 2000

Reader’s Guide: Leibel Fein Collection Race in America

Race, Rhetoric and Reason Congress bi-weekly: A Journal of Opinion and Jewish Affairs, 1968

Measuring the Black-White Gap Draft, 1970

The Limits of Liberalism Saturday Review, June 1970

Mandela in America Draft, 1990

Not Wholly Right, Not Wholly Wrong Draft for the Forward, 1992

Address in Memphis on Urban Policy and Racial Temper Speech, May 1992

To Be Black in America Today Draft for the Forward, 1994

Speech on Social Justice, Multiculturalism, and the Melting Pot 1995

Speech to the Jewish Council for Public Affairs on Race, Public Policy and Affirmative Action on February 25, 1998

Reader’s Guide: Leibel Fein Collection Black-Jewish Relations

Negro and Jew: A "Special Relationship" | Israel Horizons , November 1968

The Negro Revolution and the Jewish Community Synagogue Council of America, 1969

Blacks, Jews and Utopia | Speech, 1970

Jews and the Urban Crisis | Speech, 1975

The War inside the Jews- A Painful Breakdown of the Liberal Consensus The New Republic, 1977

The Andrew Young Affair... To Be Continued | Moment, October 1979

Blacks And Jews, Egypt And Jordan | Speech, 1985

The Awkward Alliance | Moment, February 1986

Crown Heights and Kristallnacht | Draft for the Forward, 1991

Remarks on An Historical Perspective on the Relationship between America's Blacks and Jews | Speech, 1992

Address to SUNY Stony Brook on Black-Jewish Relations | April 25, 1993

Black-Jewish Confrontations | Draft for the Forward, 1993

Farrakhan and Black-Jewish Relations | Draft for the Forward, 1995

Reader’s Guide: Leibel Fein Collection Christian-Jewish Relations

Jewish Particularism in Contemporary Universalism National Council of Churches, November 1969

Mending the World: A Jewish Approach to Social Justice Commonweal, 1994

The ADL and the Christian Right Draft for the Forward, 1994

Is Pat Robertson an Antisemite? Does it Matter? Draft for Forward, 1995

An Unholy Alliance Forward, 2003

Looking for God At Auschwitz Forward, 2006

Why Do We Fawn Over John Hagee Forward, 2008

Blog Post: Evangelical Zionism APN Blog, 2008

Reader’s Guide: Leibel Fein Collection American Politics

Clinton’s Election | Draft for the Forward, 1992

Welfare Reform, or Welfare Repeal? | Draft for the Forward, August 1996

Comments on Cohen's "Religion and the Public Square | Draft, 1999

Religion and Politics | Draft, 1999

George W. Bush's Reign of Error | Forward, 2006

Why Obama? | Private letter, January 2008

Jews and the Democratic Party | Draft for the Forward, October 2008

Why Labor Issues Are Jewish Issues | Forward, March 2011

Agreeing With the 99% Protesters | Forward, November 2011

Poverty in America | Forward, February 2012

Is Our Tradition Liberal or Conservative? | Forward, April 2012

Predicting Jewish Vote for President | Forward, August 2012

Barack Obama Asks Americans To Trust Him When History Proves We Cannot | Forward, June 2013

Reader’s Guide: Leibel Fein Collection Israeli Politics

The Political Worlds of Jerusalem's People: A Study of the Political Orientations and Cultural Backgrounds of Traditional, Transitional, and Modern Types in Jerusalem | Dissertation, Michigan State University, 1962

Ideology and Politics in Israel | American Jewish Congress, Summer 1966

Thoughts on the Peace Treaty with Egypt | 1978

Along The Way: Prime Ministers And Me | Draft, 1992

A Correspondence With | Draft, 1992

The Inter-Agency Coalition on Israeli Arabs - So Far | Memo, 2001

Getting to Know Ariel Sharon | Forward, March 2003

Is Olmert a Man Of Action? | Forward, January 2006

The Fantasies of | Forward, October 2006

Blog Post on Political Corruption in Israel | APN Blog, 2008

Hardliner and Tent City Leader Tell Tale of Two Israels | Forward, September 2011

My Battered Zionism: Liberal Zionists Speak Out | Huffintgon Post, April 2012

Israel's Shooting Star Yair Lapid May Quickly Crash Back to Earth Forward, January 2013

Reader’s Guide: Leibel Fein Collection Israel & Diaspora

Israel's Crisis: Its Effect on the American Jewish Community and its Implications for Jewish Communal Service Journal of Jewish Communal Service , Fall 1968

Attitude Towards Israel: The Data and Thin Limits Speech to CJP, 1977

Israel Politicians Shouldn't Be Invited to Address UJA Meetings Moment, June 1988

Letter to Stephen Walt Concerning “The Israel Lobby” September 2007

Confessions of a Sometime Israel Lobbyist Draft for Dissent Magazine, Spring 2008

Review: 'The Israel Lobby' Draft, 2008

Michael Oren's Incredible Shrinking Tent Forward, January 2010

My Battered Zionism: Liberal Zionists Speak Out Huffington Post, April 2012

Is Israel Losing Young Democrats? Forward, April 2013

Reader’s Guide: Leibel Fein Collection Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The Two Kinds of Jew Draft for the Forward, 1992

I Told You So Draft for the Forward, 1993

Arafat's Silence After Terror Draft for the Forward, 1994

Lunch with Arafat Draft for the Forward, February 1996

Call for Meeting on "Hamatzav" Correspondence, 2006

One Hand Clapping: the 40th Anniversary of the Six Day War Draft, 2007

The Inadequacy of " There is No Partner" APN Blog, 2008

Why Jews Should Back Palestinian U.N. Bid

Forward, November 2012

Why Can't Israelis and Palestinians Both Be Right? Forward, May 2013

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