attempting the mind-boggling task of writing new Those who choose to have children—whether they live j liturgy. As the proliferation of Rosb-Hodesh (new in traditional family structures or not—need the full moon) celebrations attests, that route can be a fruitful support of the community in raising them. Jewish one. For others, the strategy may be to develop the community centers and Jewish organizations should equivalent of kabbalistic kavanot (meditations said pioneer in providing day-care both for employees and j before or after some parts of the traditional liturgy) for community children. They should also take a lead inj which imbue old words and symbols with dramatically developing flexi-time schedules and shared jobs, and in new meanings. But if women—and men—whose making paternity leaves available to men. Jewish consciousnesses are shaped by living in the modern communities must start thinking about taking our world are to be able to pray, then the form and content women and our children seriously. If the raising of of those prayers must begin to respond to the reality of Jewish children is a communal priority, it must be our lives. Beyond what has already been said, that recognized as a communal responsibility. means we ought also to consider the development of a liturgy which can address a genderless, non-personal None of these issues, of course, is an issue only for God. women. Nor are they concerns that can be solved if only women address them. The agenda of equal access has . 3. Family structures provide another arena of current not yet been achieved, and it must not be abandoned. ' difficulty—and of potential new strength. The lives of There is much that both Jewish women and the Jewish ' many of us differ from the Jewish norm of a traditional community can gain by according women equal access nuclear family. The Jewish family—as the American to positions of responsibility and respect within that family in general—is in crisis. Large numbers of community. American Jews live their lives apart from such families. But the failure of the Jewish community to recognize But if women are truly to be included in the Jewish that reality makes it difficult, if not impossible, for us community—if that community is to be responsive to to express our spirituality and to participate fully in and reflective of the needs of all its members—a more Jewish community life. How long will our community fundamental transformation is required. We must deny that some people may choose to remain single or move beyond "equal access'' to a vision which to live communally, and that these are valid long-term incorporates the diversity of both women's and men's choices? How long will it be before the Jewish experience in the contemporary world. The task is a community will recognize the existence of gay Jews? large one. It is our hope, in opening this dialogue, to We cannot continue to ignore people who choose to live engage the wider community in making this vision a differently from the norm. Both for the health and reality. -tt growth of the community and for the possibilities of fulfillment for its members, it is imperative that the No to a Palestinian state: a reply Jewish community find ways to affirm and support those who are single, those who live communally, those who Avraham Weiss are single parents, and those who choose to love persons of their own sex. In an op-ed article entitled "The West Bank's Future" published by the New York Times (June 30, 1981), Issues of Child Raising Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg calls for the creation of a 4. Children are a concern for all of us. Judaism places a Palestinian Arab state in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, high value on children and their care. It is often stated contending that if these areas were integrated into that the most crucial commandment for Jews is p 'ru Israel,' 'the high Arab birth-rate would produce an ur'vu (be fruitful and multiply). But the American Arab majority in the 'undivided Israel'; this majority Jewish community, which speaks often about the would eventually coalesce into one political force.'' importance of giving birth to and raising Jewish Rabbi Hertzberg is not the first to present this children, has rarely recognized the provision of quality argument. Within the spectrum of Jewish opinion it child care as ajewish issue. Nor has it respected the has been espoused by a very small but vocal minority. choices of those who decide not to bear children. The Hertzberg position, however, neither squares with the facts nor with reality. Those who choose not to have children deserve the support and respect of the community for their According to the authoritative Central Bureau of decision. But they should not, as a consequence, be Statistics in Israel, (Statistical Abstracts of Israel, Vol. denied the opportunity to develop relationships with 31) in 1967, 36.3% of the population between the young children or to support those who have children. Continued on page 128 124 but as arising from God's di-polar nature. Some readers will be impatient with Cohen's K'ra inability to resist a linguistic cadenza—e.g., I thought "holocaustal" near blasphemy. They will find the heart of the argument in chapter 2, the last 4 pages of chapter The Sh iihi Book Review 3 and pp. 86-95. On Cohen's own terms, his argument failed. If THE TREMENDUM. Arthur A. Cohen. Crossroad. Schelling and Rosenzweig, with adaptation to be sure, $9.95. can be our teachers, the Holocaust was not a caesura. It A rthur Cohen's return to theological should have taught us, I suggest, that we should not writing is distinguished by his virtuosic rely on human rationality, and particularly not to use of language, his holistic cultural horizon, his describe God's essence. And while I share the passion to courage in proposing a new, post-Holocaust doctrine of save God's absolute sovereignty, one can square a God and, not the least, by his person, for he writes not di-polar God with Adonai's absolute oneness only by as a professor or rabbi but as a devoted Jew, serious the move back into kahallah. about understanding his faith. I think Cohen's case will mean most to those who Cohen builds his case around two key terms, have not lived with this issue for nearly two decades. For tremendum and caesura. He uses the former to something has now changed as a result of our highlight the substantive enormity of the Holocaust continuing discussions. Once we thought the Shoah was and the latter to assert that it represents a radical break the lens through which all reality was to be viewed. In with our received tradition. The Shoah, for all its recent years the ordinary has claimed its place in our significance for humankind, is unique only in its lives and now demands it in our thought. We cannot let meaning for Jews. Other peoples will have their own the Holocaust move too far from the center of our tremenda. attention; life remains too precarious for that. But His new notion of God stems from Luria's mystic increasingly it says more about the shattering collapse of image of God's tzim-tzum, self-contraction, so as to our post-Enlightenment messianic self-delusions than make place for creating the world. This answer to the about the ultimate nature of all history. It did not so problem of evil—when God withdraws, evil enters—is much break our continuity with our past as send us back assimilated to Schelling's theory of God being an to it. Not for simple acceptance—we remain too essential for-self as well as a loving for-others. modern for that—but to find better ways of adapting Rosenzweig drew from this his metaphysics of God as its message of hope and limits to our chastened sense of being Naught as well as Aught. Cohen now adapts humankind's extraordinary power for good and, as we these views of German transcendental idealism to have painfully learned, also for evil. "explain" the evil, not as due to God having limits, (Eugene B. Borowitz) THE AMERICAN JEWISH WOMAN, 1654-1980. statements made in the main narrative, as well as a Jacob R. Marcus. Ktav. $15 means for every reader to be one's own historian. It is THE AMERICAN JEWISH WOMAN: A DOCUMEN- intriguing in its choice of entries, and serves its stated TARY HISTORY. Marcus, Ktav. $35 purpose well. {Joseph C. Kaplan) he first book listed presents an overview of the history of the American Jewish woman from the first boatload of Dutch Jews from IMMIGRANT SURVIVORS. Dorothy Seidman Bilik. Brazil in 1654 to Dawidowicz, Abzug, Holtzman and Wesleyan. $15.95. Yalow. Although one can properly take issue with Professor Marcus' defense of his constant use of the eading this book has been like coming word "Jewess," and be somewhat confused by the Rhome to a family circle meeting. book's organization, any reader interested in studying Malamud, Wallant, Bellow, Roth, all are reviewed in the as yet untold history of a majority of the American this slim volume. Through the use of many quotations Jewish population will find the few hours needed to from their works and an excellent linguistic analysis of read this book well spent. The accompanying them, Ms. Bilik has proven her thesis that the emphasis supplemental volume, consisting of primary source in the new immigrant novel is on the tragedy of the material, is meant as a support and amplification of the Jewish historical past.