Letter to R. Maurice Lamm Explaining His Change of Mind about the Israeli Black Panthers (1971)

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Exchange with R. Lorincz about His Speech on the Israeli "Black Panther" Movement (1971)

Dear friend, I am enclosing a copy of a speech I delivered in the Knesset on May 24th on the subject of "Black Panthers". This topic has aroused intense interest in Israel and has lately been in the forefront of our minds. You will observe that in my remarks I mentioned our Sde Chemed Children's Village – a school in which you are an active partner – as a school which provides at least one answer to the problem which has agitated the country. The 300 children of Sde Chemed prove that youths who could become Black Panthers can be wonderful children from every standpoint. To get the positive results we all seek two conditions are essential: there must be suitable place for the children to receive a good education and what is offered the children must be given to them with love, as it is in Sde Chemed. I hope you find my remarks of interest. I shall, of course, be happy to receive your reaction and any suggestion you may want to offer on this vital subject. With greetings from Zion, I am, sincerely, Rabbi Shlomo Lorincz

Zionism

Letter to R. Siegman about His Article Regarding Criticism of Israel (1970)

Dear Henry: I am not normally the type that writes fan letters, but I received today from the R.C.A. a copy of your letter of March 26th to The Village Voice. It was more than a letter; it was a classical essay. I cherished reading every single word. You have my unbounded admiration for having said what you did so forthrightly and so well. Cordially yours, Rabbi Norman Lamm. Voice, Published weekly (Thursday) by The Village Voice, Inc.Dan Wolf, president, Edwin Fancher, secretary-treasurerSHERIDAN SQUARE, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10014**March 26, 1970****A Question of Truth**Dear Sir:Simple ignorance might explain why a Michael Zwerin (“Outside: London," March 5 and 12) would not know how Israel voted in the United Nations on the subject of South Africa. To assert, however, as he does, that “Abba Eban always voted against the U.N. resolutions condemning South Africa" when the very reverse is in fact the case (Israel has repeatedly voted in the U.N. to condemn South Africa and in favor of economic sanctions, even though national self-interest would have dictated at least an abstention), is to be guilty not of ignorance, but of a deliberate lie, and reveals Zwerin, or his Israeli anti-Israel friends, or both, as malicious persons intent on defaming Israel and Jews.This maliciousness is a disease that is regrettably as common as it is unsightly—a Jewish self-hatred born of an embarrassment and an inability to come to terms with the “tribalism” of Jewish faith and Israeli nationalism.That this phenomenon is indeed a disease and not a noble universalist impulse is evident from the fact that generally the very same people who find Israeli nationalism “racist,” “tribal,” and “parochial" are entirely uncritical in their support of the nationalisms of Third World Asian and African countries, which are invariably described as “progressive,” “revolutionary,” and strangely compatible with their universalism.One is stunned by the depth and ugliness of the pathology. Zwerin’s London h…

Zionism