SPECIAL ISSUE $1.00 NOV.-DEC. 1980 VOL. 47, NO. 7 CONGRESS A Journal of Opinion and Jewish Affairs MONTHLY i Right to Participate in Each Other's if fairs and the Limits of That Right American- Israel Dialogue Morris Abram / Zalman Abramov / Phil Baum / Yehuda Ben-Meir / Yosef Burg / David Clayman Kenneth Dauber / Annette Dulzin / Abba Eban / Marshall Goldman / Merle Goldman / Samuel Heilman Chiae Herzig / Eliezer Jaffe / Abraham Karp / Leon Kronish / Joseph Lapid / Ruth Lapidoth / Theodore Mann Mordechai Nisan / William Orbach / Uzi Oman / Cynthia Ozick / Michael Pelavin / Eliezer Rafaeli Danny Rosolio / Edward Sanders / Harold Schulweis / Shimon Shetreet / Henry Siegman / Zvi Sobel Howard Squadron / Mervin Verbit / Moshe Yegar / David Zucker CCWAVils.r ״'־N JEW \׳.7m Ah*m\c B f a u sfein Lihr^•,, VOL. 47 NO. 7 NOV-DEC 1960 The 16th American-Israel Dialogue OPENING SESSION The Right to Participate in Each Other's Affairs Theodore Mann PARTICIPANTS Abba Eban YosefBurg MORRIS ABRAM is a lawyer and former president of Brandeis University. SECOND SESSION ZALMAN ABRAMOV is a member of the Israeli Knesset. THIRD SESSION PHIL BAUM is the associate executive director of American Jewish Congress. The Right to Influence YEHUDA BEN-MEIR is chairman of the National Religious Party and a Knesset membei Foreign Affairs Policies YOSEF BURG is Minister of Interior in Israel. Morris B. Abram 13 Moshe Yegar 17 DAVID CLAYMAN is the Israel director of AJCongress. KENNETH DAUBER is associate professor of English literature at SUNY, Buffalo. FOURTH SESSION The Right to Influence Each ANNETTE DULZIN is a political columnist in Israel. Other's Religious Practices ABBA EBAN, a member of the Knesset, was formerly Israel's Foreign Minister. Harold M. Schulweis 25 MARSHALL GOLDMAN is associate director of the Russian Research Center, Harvar Yehuda Ben-Meir 28 MERLE GOLDMAN is a professor of history at Boston University. FIFTH SESSION SAMUEL HEILMAN, associate professor of sociology at Queens College, was the direct The Right to Influence Each of Jewish Studies at Queens during 1979-80 and is the author of Synagogue Life Other's Social and Human Rights CHIAE HERZIG is a co-president of the National Women's Division, AJCongress. Eliezer Jaffe 32 Mervin F. Verbit 34 ELIEZER JAFFE lectures at Hebrew University's School of Social Work and was form director of Jerusalem's Welfare Department. In this issue we publish the proceedings ABRAHAM KARP is a professor of history and religion at the University of Rocheste of the 16th American-Israel Dialogue, LEON KRONISH, rabbi of Temple Shalom in Miami Beach, is an honorary vice-preside sponsored by American Jewish Con- of AJCongress. gress and held at the Van Leer Founda- tion, Jerusalem, July 15-18, 1960. JOSEPH LAPID is director general of the Israel Broadcasting Authority. RUTH LAPIDOTH is a legal advisor to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Copies of this issue are available for professor of international law at Hebrew University. purchase. Individual copies, $1; 11-25 copies, 850 each; over 26 copies, 700 THEODORE MANN is a senior vice-president of AJCongress and former chairman of tl each. Order from CONGRESS Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. MONTHLY, 15 E. 84th St., New York, MORDECHAI NISAN is a lecturer at the Dept. of Middle Eastern Studies, Hebre N.Y. 10028. University. WILLIAM ORBACH is a professor of Studies in Religion, University of Louisville. UZI ORNAN is chairman of the Dept. of Hebrew Linguistics, Hebrew University. CYNTHIA OZICK is an American author whose newest collection of fiction, Levitation CONGRESS will be published by Knopf in January 1981. A Journal of Opinion and Jewish Affairs MICHAEL PELAVIN, the former chairman of the UJA Young Leadership Cabinet, i vice-chairman of NJCRAC and vice-president of HIAS. ELIEZER RAFAELI is director general of Project Renewal, The Jewish Agency. MONTHLY DANNY ROSOLIO is a member of the Israeli Knesset. EDWARD SANDERS was a former advisor to the President of the United States. Editor Assistant Editor Herbert Poster Nancy Miller HAROLD SCHULWEIS is rabbi of Valley Beth Shalom in Los Angeles and an adjunc professor of contemporary Jewish living, University of Judaism. CONGRESS MONTHLY (USPS 714080) is pub- SHIMON SHETREET is on the Faculty of Law, Hebrew University. lished eight times a year by American Jewish Congress, 15 East 84th Street, New York, HENRY SIEGMAN is the executive director of AJCongress. N.Y. 10028. Second class postage paid at ZVI SOB EL, a sociologist at Haifa University, emigrated to Israel from the U. S. in 1969. New York, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send ad- dress changes to above address. Indexed in HOWARD SQUADRON, president of AJCongress, is also chairman of the Conference 01 Index to Jewish Periodicals. SUBSCRIP- Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. HONS: $5 one year; $9 two years; $13 three years. Add $1 per year outside North MERV1N VERBIT is a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College. America. Single copy 750. Unsolicited man- MOSHE YEGAR is deputy director general of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. uscripts will not be returned unless accom- panied by a se:lf-addressed, stamped en- DAVID ZUCKER, a founding member of Peace Now, is a Fellow at the Van Leer velope. <^^>412 Jerusalem Foundation. 2 CONGRESS MONTHLY \ settlers to join him in a shehechiyanu (a OPENING SESSION blessing) celebrating the birth of his grandchild. The settlers also wanted us to join them in a shehechiyanu to celebrate their new settlement. Before the glare of Israeli TV crews, the two groups thanked rhe Right to Participate in Each Other's God for having reached their respective new seasons. I stayed out of the celebration tent, Affairs and the Limits of That Right waiting for the festivities to end. Then we mingled with the settlers and talked with them about their motivations in deciding THEODORE MANN to settle in this barren place in the heart of A Presentation the West Bank. Security had little to do with it. I then observed my friend Rabbi Israel Miller with tears in his eyes. I wondered I approach this year's Dialogue as one Beyond those rather minimal lim- then, and I have wondered ever since, I who does not seek an arm's length itations which, despite their simple, how the very same experience which elationship between two distinct manageable nature, have been exceeded brought tears to his eyes, could have eoples, but an organic relationship of a several times in the past two years, all brought chills to my spine. I like to think ingle people who have chosen to be citi- other limitations should be self-imposed that I too admire courage and dedication ens of two different states. The general limitations deriving from the imperatives to an ideal. I think that he too was ap- ale therefore should embody our unfet- of sechel—conventional wisdom. For palled with the knowledge that every ered right to comment on each other's example, we have worked out a self- time an Arab looked up at the sky he ffairs. This freedom ultimately en- imposed restraint in organized American would see this Israeli encampment. How tances our oneness. Certain limitations Jewish life. We refrain from attempting could this ever lead to peace, we won- mist develop because we are two sepa- to influence Israeli security decisions. dered. ate nationalities. Two such limitations This is because of our enormous respect Why were our reactions so utterly dif- lave suggested themselves to me during for the security decisions Israelis have ferent? he course of my recently concluded term made in the past, and our belief that from Unity—as that term is used when we if office as chairman of the Conference the safety of our homes 6,000 miles say "world Jewry" must be unified in >f Presidents of Major American Jewish away , we are ill-equipped to recommend order to endure in a hostile world—is an )rganizations. what risks Israelis ought be willing to elusive concept. Obviously it doesn't re- take. quire a uniformity of views on all 1. Israeli public figures should re- The future of the West Bank has an subjects—our endurance till now tes- frain from urging American Jews to obvious and direct bearing on the secu- tifies to that. And so if Rabbi Miller had vote for or against particular political rity of Israel, and therefore American cried and I hadn't, I would have thought candidates. They should also refrain Jews under my leadership these past two nothing of it. It was always so. But when from either publicly endorsing such years have been enormously restrained the same developments cause part of candidates or from public expressions on this subject. But in some respects the Jewry to cry and another part of Jewry to of hope that this or that candidate will issues involved go beyond security. With be cold with anger, one senses a disunity lose. Conversely, American Jewish Judea and Samaria, Israel is holding, to emerging at a very fundamental and leadership should steer clear from in- use Thomas Jefferson's words, "a wolf dangerous level. terfering in Israeli political elections. by the ears": It is torn between the dan- As I stood at Elon Moreh I kept asking 2. Israeli public officials should re- gers of letting go and the dangers of hold- myself, how much blood has been— frain from urging American Jews to ing on. The dangers of letting go relate to must yet be—spilled in this world in the petition their government for any pur- security. The dangers of holding on do name of God? How many more of our pose whatever and no matter how im- not.