Dear Editor,
Your interview with Mark Rudd, whom I had met in the roaring 60s in Chicago, brought back many memories of those tumultuous times. I was at that Chicago conference when the Weathermen split off from SDS, for example.
In reaction to the growing anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism emanating from the Black Left and parts of the New Left, I and others formed the Jewish Student Movement in the late 60s at Northwestern University, which quickly spread to other campuses. Rabbi Michael Lerner was still involved in the Seattle 8 or some SF resistance group. Later, our Jewish radical group grew and grew. Out of it came such classic books as “Jewish Radicalism” edited by myself and Peter Dreier and “The New Jews” by James Sleeper and Alan Mintz.
There were three distinct, maybe four, parts to this movement–our radical Jewish element, a countercultural element that was more hippieish, and the “Jewish Renewal” part, a term used much later, that included Arthur Waskow’s Farbrengen group and the chavurah movement. One could also add the rise of the Jewish feminist movement.
Lerner only deals with the “Jewish Renewal” part in his work. He ignores all the rest and never gives me, David Twersky, Aviva and Murrray Zuckoff, and many others any credit. True, he is a prolific writer and energetic organizer, but he is a faker when it comes to saying that he alone started this radical movement. That is a lie. He came a decade later. In Israel, he is irrelevant, if known at all. To the Palestinians, he is a novelty act. The people they have respect for are the international volunteers who come to the West Bank and work side by side with the Palestinians, often at great danger. Lerner does none of these things. Both Tikkun and Lerner are “arm-chair radicals” who do not engage in “direct action”. Even the Workman’s Circle is more activist. In short, he is a well-meaning but ineffectual faker.
Venceremos!
Jack Nusan Porter, Newtonville, Mass.
Dear Editor,
As a friend of Mia’s who was involved in those initial meetings with the Maryland Food Collective (“Your Zionist T-Shirt Offends Me,” Campus Briefs, September/October 2007) , it’s such a relief to read an article that actually interviewed the relevant people and understood what had happened. We were criticized by some for not standing up strongly enough for free speech, but those critics never asked us why we preferred conversation and compromise: we valued the co-op, not just as a source of strictly vegan food, but as a community.
Yashar ko’ach,
Rebecca M.
Dear Editor,
Do you know if there are there dictionaries at the University of Maryland? I have to ask because the article in the September/October Issue of New Voices by Josh Nathan-Kazis led me to question the University of Maryland’s resources. According to my dictionary, Zionism is: “a worldwide Jewish movement that resulted in the establishment and development of the state of Israel.” It’s a simple definition, but clearly too difficult for some members of the University of Maryland community to understand. Additionally, Zionism, simply put, is a peaceful Jewish nationalist movement. Although Zionism is supported by non-Jews, it remains essentially a Jewish political movement based on the desire for a place for Jews to be safe. A place where Jews are not discriminated against because they are Jewish. The Zionist state was imagined as a place without pogroms. Without kristallnachts. Without dhimmitude. Without Holocausts. The Zionist state was imagined as a place of solace and peace for a group that had been exiled and trampled upon.
Unfortunately, there are those on both college campuses, such as the cashier at the University of Maryland’s Food Collective, and in the world at large, who do not know the definition of Zionism and make no attempt to understand it. Unfortunately, the same people often have anti-Zionist beliefs and use those beliefs as an excuse discriminate against Jewish people.
I am disgusted by at the actions of this politically inept “student” and cashier who is clearly not a student of the world history or political thought. The lack of appropriate response on the part of the Collective as a whole to this act of blatant discrimination and
incompetence was more disappointing. It seems that they do not care about their community of shoppers (25% of whom are Jewish, and logically could have some times to Zionism if they are not Zionists themselves). On a personal level, it is a shame that a young person who is receiving an education at a fine institution like the University of Maryland could be so blinded, deluded, and prejudiced. At a place of learning, it is more fitting to engage ones peers and to actually discuss what is happening in the State of Israel than to turn one’s back on reality and languish in delusions and promote segregation. I can only hope that in the future other cashiers will be more open-minded and show less prejudiced towards those members of the Jewish community who have ties with the Jewish homeland. College is a place for dialogue and free-expression, and I hoep both dialogue and free-expression will prevail at the University of Maryland!
Sincerely,
Adrienne Potter Yoe
Mount Holyoke College ’10
David Project Campus Fellow
CAMERA Campus Representative
Seeds of Peace ’02, ’03
