4 min read
Like Jenni Frazer, I was struck by the minimal feminine input in Norman Lebrecht’s new book (How Jews Changed the World, October 4). Do male writers just not bother to do the research or genuinely don’t think women are sufficiently important?
And I might add even more surprise on hearing Rabbi Harvey Belovski’s excellent Radio 4 talk, ‘Something Understood’, broadcast on September 29. His only mention of a woman was of Hagar as a helpless lost soul the expelled bondswoman-slave of Sarah. Rabbi Belovski’s talk emphasised the fundamental importance of living in the present, both in its practical sense as well as finding an immediate direct route into experiencing God (Truth). He gave numerous quotations from wise men in various traditions.
But why not some contribution from those who are so often in the forefront of needing, by necessity, to be in the present — our mothers and wives, and from those benefiting from the wisdom of age, our grandmothers. Have they not learned a thing or two of note to pass on?
They are after all more naturally communicative and happy than us men. Perhaps the secret of the omission is in the very nature of wisdom itself, a feminine virtue as recorded in the gender of the word in most languages including Hebrew, Sanskrit and Greek. Proverbs tell us that Wisdom… "has sent out her servants and calls from the highest point in the city for us..to walk in the ways of insight.” (9:1–2, 6;14:1). But Insight itself can only be written in the heart.
Dr Stanley Jacobs
London SW18
A “battle” that had been fought and decided seems to be undergoing attempts to revive it. I am referring to the old Zionist/Hebrew vs. Yiddish argument (Letters, October 4). Obviously, history indicates that Israel “won”. In fact, a “Yiddish partisan” admitted as such to me some time ago.
However, this was a stupid and wasteful battle. For one the Yiddish partisans wanted Yiddish to be the national language, but this was totally ignorant of Israel’s geography being on the Asian continent and disrespectful to the Jewish people as a whole.
I have engaged with the (so called) Yiddish revival movement, specifically at the Yiddish Book Center in Northampton, Massachusetts. I believe that there are two components to this mistaken movement: one, that the move to fall in love with everything Yiddish is really a thinly disguised cover for trying to connect with “nice” Jews, i.e., not Israel/Netanyahu, the “bad” Jews.
In other words, an attempt to be involved with something Jewish that is not Israel. Second, it is misplaced romanticism for a life that the present-day Yiddish revivalists think existed both in Eastern Europe.
A third component is ignorance - of who the entire Jewish nation is, and our history in Europe. No, life back there was not a Sholem Aleichem story. In fact just the opposite. It was a wrong turn from ancient Palestine for the Jews. We are an Asian people, like it or not. Yiddish will never make a significant comeback, particularly in an environment in which getting Jews to even accept their being Jewish is a prime struggle, not which language we use.
My generation was the one in which we heard Yiddish on a regular basis but did not speak it.
From that point there is no connection.
I do appreciate that organizations like the Yiddish Book Center are preserving the literature. I think that it is a part of our history — but just a part, not the whole.
David Cherson
Belmont, MA, US
In Tom Tugend’s moving article (This Yom Kippur, I remember my Teutonic-accented father, October 4) he mentions his visit to Berlin for the laying of brass memorial plaques.
Unfortunately, he falls victim to the ignorance of the Berlin public who are corrupting the name Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) to Stoppelsteine (stubble stones) which makes no sense at all!
Of course, passers-by are not meant to stumble over them literally; they are meant to come across them, read them and contemplate the horrors of the past.
Shoshanah Hoffman
Hendon, London NW4
It is depressing that there was no response to Melanie Phillips’ article on Israeli Arab politicians (Israeli Arabs Deserve Better From Their Leaders, September 27) last week.
Not one letter refuting the generalisation that all Joint List politicians are racist leaders that want to destroy Israel, that they are anti-Zionists who don’t recognize the only democracy in the Middle East.
No one saying it is encouraging that greater numbers of Israeli Palestinian Arabs voted in this last election resulting in more seats in the Knesset. And thereby buying into normalisation of Jewish/Arab relations.
I’ve just returned from Neve Shalom/Wahat al Salam – the village in Israel where Jews and Arabs live in a shared, equal society.
Here young up and coming Israeli Jewish and Israeli Palestinian politicians get together to examine the issues of the ‘other’. I met Israeli Palestinians Arabs who want to be involved in political life so as to exert influence, advance towards national and civil equality in Israel, and strive towards resolving the West Bank situation and achieving a just peace.
Jenny Nemko
Pinner HA5
Daniel Sugarman’s article on the CST’s work (Helping Muslims, Christians and Hindus stay safe? It’s what we do, October 4) revealed an example of the Jewish community’s unique contribution to the world.
Over the centuries, hatred from outside has forced us to look inwards but it is when we have the opportunity to share our knowledge with others, looking outwards, that we can take the greatest pride in our achievements.
In the arts, in science, in politics, in medicine, in humanity and in so many fields, our contribution far exceeds our relative numbers. The Israeli team of specialist experts, that pop-up wherever there is a disaster around the world, is a great example.
I pay tribute to Gerald Ronson and his dedicated team at CST for the work they do in protecting our community and, particularly, for helping other communities which, to my knowledge, they have been doing quietly for the last 25 years.
Neville Landau
London SW19