From LISTSERV@msu.edu Thu May 16 11:38:20 1996 Date: Tue, 28 Nov 1995 00:16:19 -0500 From: Automatic digest processor Reply-To: H-Net Jewish Studies List To: Recipients of H-JUDAIC digests Subject: H-JUDAIC Digest - 23 Nov 1995 to 27 Nov 1995 There are 7 messages totalling 229 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Holocaust Class (Kaplan) 2. Ben Sira (Beentjes) 3. Jewish criminals (Bacon) 4. Politics (Cohen) 5. Theme of impending doom and destruction (Morse) 6. comments on the Israeli "Right" (Lerner) 7. Rabin Eulogies ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 17:35:34 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: Holocaust Class (Kaplan) From: rfjjk@aurora.alaska.edu Subject: Holocaust Class Colleagues, I teach among other things a class in World History in Barrow, Alaska to a class composed primarily of Inupiak Eskimos. Students include as well several white students from the Lower 48 and, remarkably, one Israeli. We have reached the point in the class where the Holocaust needs to be discussed and for reasons which are less than clear to me, this group of students has a considerable interest in the subject. I find this rather remarkable, given that most of the students have only a vague idea what Judaism is. I am posting this in the hope that one of you with greater expertise in the subject who has had some experience in working with an undergraduate class might be willing to lead the discussion via teleconference. The class could be held either Tuesday 11/27 or Thursday 11/29 from 7:30-10:00pm Pacific Standard Time. Please reply privately to my address, and many thanks. Jeffrey Kaplan, Ph.D., Ilisagvik College Barrow, AK 99723 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 17:39:00 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: Ben Sira (Beentjes) From: P.C. Beentjes Subject: Ben Sira My name is Pancratius C.Beentjes. I am the chair holder for Old Testament and Hebrew at the Catholic Theological University at Utrecht, the Netherlands. I am a specialist in the Book of Ben Sira, on which I have pulished a great numbers of articles. It is just for that particular reason that I have joined the electronic group. Sincerely Yours, Pancratius C.Beentjes pbeentjes@ktu.ruu.nl ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 17:40:09 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: Jewish criminals (Bacon) From: Bacon Gershon Subject: Jewish criminals One of the contributors mentioned Sergio Leone's epic film "Once Upon a Time in America". Should mention in the context the book on which Leone's film was based: The Hoods by Harry Grey. Gershon Bacon, Bar-Ilan University ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 18:18:12 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: Politics (Cohen) From: Naomi Cohen Subject: Politics As I understand it, H-JUDAIC is not a list devoted to the airing of political views. In view of the very different reading of the facts of contemporary current events, from where they stem, and where they lead to, on the part of intelligent, sane, middle-of-the road, people, people who are known to generally have good judgement, might I strongly suggest that current politics be kept out off the list; and this should include even reactions in the form of scholarly articles. In the hope that this guideline will be adopted, I now refrain from any further reaction. May we see better times soon. NGCohen ed.note: I too, am one to support Naomi Cohen's position on political rhetoric. However, as the manager of this list, I am between a rock and hard place regarding censorship. With the guidance of the editorial board, I will endeavor to keep this list viable. One note: Zionism and Jewish political science, are, in my opinion, viable and legitimate parts of broader Jewish Studies. If you disagree, please feel free to write about it, but please don't quit the list over it. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 18:23:24 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: Theme of impending doom and destruction (Morse) From: Jonathan Morse Subject: Theme of impending doom and destruction Dear Professor Zahavy, Your paper "Apocalyptic Radicalism and Religion" (http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~zahavy/apocalyptic.html) extrapolates fascinatingly from the mindset of white South Africans under apartheid to the mindset of the Haredi in contemporary Israel and the ultra-Orthodox in the contemporary United States. It seems to me that the answer to your question "Is 'apocalyptic' an appropriate categorization?" is an easy yes, if only because "apocalyptic" is one of the standard terms applied to Christian eschatological sects whose theology derives from the New Testament Book of Revelation, or Apocalypse. Which brings me to a question of my own. The background of the question is a puzzling fact that's been noticed many times in print: the editors of _Commentary_ are so infatuated with the Rev. Pat Robertson that they simply deny his undeniable antisemitism. The ostensible reason for this infatuation--that at least Robertson is pro-Israel--is so trivial that it only makes the puzzle more puzzling. _Commentary_, an intellectual journal of the highest possible octane, has betrayed itself into simple absurdity. The question is: How could that have happened? One answer, I suppose, can be found in the mindset that Norman Podhoretz may have learned from his mentor F.R. Leavis: a mindset that saw conspiracy and hatred everywhere. Leavis can seem a merely comical figure (see the parody of his style as "Simon Lacerous" in Frederick Crews's _The Pooh Perplex_), but obviously there are good reasons why a political-minded Jew in the 1940s might have taken him seriously. What your paper suggests, though, is something more fundamental: a state of mind that yearns for an end to the present. It's immaterial whether the present is to be replaced by a liberal future (as in Podhoretz's celebrated essay from the civil rights era "My Negro Problem--And Ours") or something bleaker (as in _Commentary's_ present reactionary phase). The main thing is only that the present is insubstantial. But all this is just a guess. What would happen, though, if you applied the terms of your analysis to the _Commentary_-Robertson affair? Jonathan Morse, Department of English University of Hawaii at Manoa hmorse@hgea.org ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 18:30:40 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: comments on the Israeli "Right" (Lerner) From: Berel Dov Lerner Subject: Re: comments on the Israeli "Right". For years since, Israelis have bemoaned the near-racist assumption that Arabs simply cannot beat Jews on the battlefield. Furthermore, in the Middle East context even military action against Israel which ends in defeat for the Arabs may be seen by them as a moral victory (i.e. Egypt's massive celebrations commemorating the Yom Kippur War), and thus worthwhile in terms of internal, domestic political considerations. The Apocalypse may not be upon us, but neither is the Messianic Age of universal peace. Israel must continue to watch its back. Berel Dov Lerner Tel Aviv University ed.note: This item has been edited. Please correspond directly with the writer regarding the original text. Thank you. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 23:13:44 -0500 From: JSJeJ Subject: Rabin Eulogies ed.note: Thank you to the three respondents to the query about Rabin eulogies. They included two suggested World Wide Web sites and the actual text of his granddaughter's eulogy. From: SteveMSK@aol.com With regard to Ms. Penny's request the Eulogy to PM Rabin by his granddaughter Noa ben Philosoph is available on the Israel Information Service WWW site the address is listed on the Jewishnet web site. This address is http://jewishnet.net From: Bernard Kouchel All the texts, in English, of the eulogies delivered at the funeral of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin are now available in a special section on the Main Menu of the Israel Information Service gopher (gopher israel-info.gov.il) and on the Israel Foreign Ministry web site (http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il) under Israel Update. From: "m. flumerfelt" Here is a copy of the eulogy you requested. EULOGY BY NOA BEN-ARTZI FILOSOF FOR HER GRANDFATHER, THE LATE PRIME MINISTER AND DEFENSE MINISTER YITZHAK RABIN MT. HERZL, JERUSALEM, 6 NOVEMBER 1995 You will forgive me, for I do not want to talk about peace. I want to talk about my grandfather. One always wakes up from a nightmare. But since yesterday, I have only awakened to a nightmare -- the nightmare of life without you, and this I cannot bear. The television does not stop showing your picture; you are so alive and tangible that I can almost touch you, but it is only "almost" because already I cannot. Grandfather, you were the pillar of fire before the camp and now we are left as only the camp, alone, in the dark, and it is so cold and sad for us. I know we are talking in terms of a national tragedy, but how can you try to comfort an entire people or include it in your personal pain, when grandmother does not stop crying, and we are mute, feeling the enormous void that is left only by your absence. Few truly knew you. They can still talk a lot about you, but I feel that they know nothing about the depth of the pain, the disaster and, yes, this holocaust, for -- at least for us, the family and the friends, who are left only as the camp, without you -- our pillar of fire. Grandfather, you were, and still are our, hero. I want you to know that in all I have ever done, I have always seen you before my eyes. Your esteem and love accompanied us in every step and on every path, and we lived in the light of your values. You never abandoned us, and now they have abandoned you -- you, my eternal hero -- cold and lonely, and I can do nothing to save you, you who are so wonderful. People greater than I have already eulogized you, but none of them was fortunate like myself [to feel] the caress of your warm, soft hands and the warm embrace that was just for us, or your half-smiles which will always say so much, the same smile that is no more, and froze with you. I have no feelings of revenge because my pain and loss are so big, too big. The ground has slipped away from under our feet, and we are trying, somehow, to sit in this empty space that has been left behind, in the meantime, without any particular success. I am incapable of finishing, but it appears that a strange hand, a miserable person, has already finished for me. Having no choice, I part from you, a hero, and ask that you rest in peace, that you think about us and miss us, because we here -- down below -- love you so much. To the angels of heaven that are accompanying you now, I ask that they watch over you, that they guard you well, because you deserve such a guard. We will love you grandfather, always. ------------------------------ End of H-JUDAIC Digest - 23 Nov 1995 to 27 Nov 1995 ***************************************************