Exchange with Moshe Kohn about "Who Is a Jew?" and the Israeli Supreme Court Decision (1970)
Dear Mr. Kohn: I have just received the Independence Day issue of The Jerusalem Post and read the symposium, in which you participated. I assume that you were referring to me in your somewhat sarcastic comment reproduced in the first paragraph on page four. It is, of course, your privilege to disagree, even sarcastically, with any comments that are made in public. This is one of the risks that must be embraced by anyone who is going to enter the public arena. However, I have always respected your journalistic integrity, as well as admired your ability, and I trust that you will therefore accept a correction – purely on a personal basis. First, and less important, I am not quite sure what you mean by ”a professing Zionist,” but, fortunately or unfortunately, I have never officially belonged to a Zionist organization, although I have always found my own approach to be congruous with a great deal of Zionist ideology, in its many varieties.Second, and much more important, I think you misread my article in Panim el Panim on "Who Is A Jew?" I did not say, or even imply, that because of the Supreme Court decision we must reconsider our attitude to Israel, but that I expected this to be done as a normal psychological reaction. It would have been quite out of character for me to take the kind of patronizing attitude to Israel which you attributed to me.Furthermore, you seem to make the point in this paragraph that this proves the anti-Aliyah nature of religious Jews in the Diaspora. I don’t suppose that your busy schedule has permitted you to read any of my articles, or my recent book, or that, indeed, they have been available to you at all, but had you done so, you would have noticed that I have never hesitated to speak out for Aliyah, even when I knew and know that my own Immediate practice is inconsistent with my ideolgoical affirmation.I hope that if for nothing else, the point is cleared up. IAll my best to Pnina and Pinchas.Sincerely yours,
