CONTENTS
3 Eric Silver
Letter from jerusalem 5 Nahum Goldmann
The End of an Era 9 Alexander Baron
People in Pinterland 10 Harold Pinter
... my fellow Jew.\" II Hyam Maccoby
Jesus in his time 15 Albert Rothschild
Frcm Rashi to Luther 16 Meir Wiener
Diogo Pires 18 Alter Kacyzne
"The few's Opera" 23 Isaac Celnikier
Art and the Holocaust 23 Alfred Werner
Ludwig Meidner 26 Supplement
"Yll:5DISH-A WAY OF LIFE" 27 Golda Meir
Our Common Treasure 29 Dov Sadan
Yiddish and Hebrew 31 Leonard Prager
Yiddish in the UniL•ersity 41 Josef Herman
"Peret:ism" and Yiddish 4 3 Baruch Hager
Chassidism and Yiddish 45 Elie Schechtman
"A roof over our lit•es" 47 S. Levenberg
The impact of Yiddish 51 Yizhak Korn
Don't say '"Kuddislt" yet 53 Joseph Leftwich
On Translations 56 Laeander Belousov
Poem 57 Ruth Whitman
The Translator as juggler 59 Sol Liptzin
Yiddish in Israel 61 NEW BOOKS (reviewed by
Jacob Sonntag, Josef Herman, Margot Lester, Peter Cantor, Mark Cohen) 66 TWENTY YEARS ON ...
Letter from the Editor
2
ART REPRODUCTIONS: Drawin~s by Marc Chagall, Isaac Celnikier, Josef Herman, Tankhum Kaplan, El Lissitzky, Ben Shahn, Josef Tchaikov.
which led to the October war and its aftermath was the outcome of past policies based on wrong premises. It was the resistance to change that has caused it.
In the past the policy of "no alternative" IEin breira) dominated the thinking of the politicians and of the ordinary people. Undoubtedly there was a time when it appeared to be the only "alternative" to defeat and surrender. But that time has passed long ago. Immediately after the Six-Day War of June, 1967, it is now generally admitted, there existed a good chance of coming to terms with the Arabs, which was missed. During the intervening years a settlement not much different from the one reached in the present armistice negotiations could have been achieved without the direct intervention of the two super-powers. It was the resistance to change, to the changing of the status quo of "no peace no war" which prevented it. And even now the dividing line is between those who resist change and those who are agreed on the need for it, even though opinions still vary among the latter.
As long as there is dissent there is hope. It is probably no accident that those who reject change are mostly to be found among the political right. The change that is called for is, paradoxically, a call to return to the pioneering spirit, the vision and the ideals of the founders and fathers of Zionism and of the State of Israel. It is not real.ly the paradox it appears to be. Zionism was born out of the urge for change, for a new way of life, a new social order. As Dr. Goldmann, in his address to the Zionist General Council last February, pointed out, BenGurion, in his later years, expressed the fear that Israel might become "a state like any other state". This was not the concept which inspired the early pioneers and enabled them to overcome hardships and dangers. Given the vision and the will, the dangers that lie ahead will be overcome, too.
WHEN ISRAEL CELEBRATED HER FIRST QUARTER CENTCRY OF independence last year, no one anticipated the outbreak of the October war a few months later. The circumstances in which that war had to be fought, the internal crisis which followed its outcome -- a crisis that has still to be resolved - and the searchin~ questions which are persistently being asked since then, have undoubtedly influenced the mood in which this year's Independence Day has been marked.
Although a shift in the composition of the Israeli government became certain with the resignation of Mrs. Golda Meir from the premiership, it is as yet early to say what the changes will be the new government is 'to make. One thing, however, is certain: the demand for change is no longer confined to a minority, although the nature of the changes required may still be a matter of stark controversy.