JEWISH INTEREST Yossi Klein Halevi...continued from previous page
point in that time, or do you feel that it is a general truth? Is there no Jewish history unfolding in the Diaspora? YKH: That was definitely a reflection of my thinking as a young American Jew. It is certainly not my thinking today. Ironically, I feel more connected to American Jews since becoming an Israeli than I did growing up in America. My American Jewish exyperience was highly peculiar. I grew up -in Borough Park, in a survivor community, on the edges of American Jewish -life. I had a great deal of anger against -American Jewry. My father, a survivor lfrom Hungary, blamed American Jews .for not trying to rescue European Jewyry, and I turned his anger into political aalienation. That’s why I joined Betar, eand then the Jewish Defense League. I deliberately positioned myself on the fringes of American Jewry. Since moving to Israel, I’ve gotten to know American Jewry far better than I knew it when I was actually living in America. I spend a good deal of time lecturing about Israel in Jewnish communities and I’ve come to love -and respect American Jewry. Our genferation is blessed with two unimaginafble Jewish options. The first is to live nin a sovereign Jewish state, where we -can determine the nature of our public space. The second is to live in the most -free and accepted Diaspora in history, twhere Jews are invited to help shape the public space of the most powerful ecountry in the world. Our great-grandparents would have been amazed if lonly one of those options had emerged. mWe are overwhelmed with riches. PKJ: Memoirs does not treat k your time at Northwestern University’s School of Journalism. Is that e absence a statement? n YKH: Not at all. I recently spoke at . Northwestern’s Medill School of Jour, nalism – the fi rst time I’d been back t gsince graduating in 1978. I learned how -to become a journalist there; it was the tmost important educational experience eof my life. The reason I didn’t write about f Medill was because I didn’t see the l book as an autobiography, but a memeoir. The difference between the two tforms is that an autobiography is about a life, while a memoir is about an naspect of one’s life. Memoirs of a oJewish Extremist tells the story about ehow a Jew from Borough Park, from eBetar and the JDL, came to make his epeace with the world. There’s a lot about my life growing up that I left out eof Memoirs because I didn’t see how it ffit into the book’s theme. PKJ: Near the end of Memoirs, you say that you delayed making Alie -yah to Israel until you felt you had eestablished yourself as a journalist. sYou mention placing an article on .the JDL in the Village Voice. How s , f e -
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else did you go about establishing yourself? YKH: Well, one way was studying at Medill. I also had a dream of publishing my own Jewish newspaper, and did that before leaving for Israel. The paper was called New Jewish Times, and it was a self-conscious attempt to give voice to the Jewish fringes, all those who felt disaffected from the established Jewish community. It was a kind of precursor of Heeb and some of the other alternative Jewish media that exist today. PKJ: What are your responsibilities to / benefits from your position as a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute? YKH: I’m a member of the Institute’s iEngage, which creates a curriculum on Israel for Diaspora Jews. iEngage is an attempt to give Diaspora Jews a richer language in speaking about Israel – less political and more conceptual, an attempt to create a shared values conversation. Also, I co-direct the institute’s Muslim Leadership Initiative, or MLI, together with Imam Abdullah Antepli of Duke University. MLI aims at educating young emerging Muslim American leaders about the meaning of Israel in Judaism and for Jews today. We’ve graduated our first cohort of 15 participants – a remarkable group of people – and we have two new groups. Along with those responsibilities, I spend my mornings at the institute writing. It’s a wonderful arrangement for a writer. PKJ: When/why did you add Halevi to your name? YKH: When my wife, Sarah, and I moved to Israel, we decided to Hebraize our name. We chose Halevi because, well, I’m a Levi, and the Levites were a caste of service in the Temple, playing music, and Sarah and I were drawn to the idea of serving God through creativity. Sarah and I met in a writing program – at City College. PKJ: Any new book projects on your to-do list? YKH: I’ve just begun a new book project, which is about the Palestinians. I’ll say only that I intend this to be much shorter than Like Dreamers – both in terms of book length and the amount of time I’ll invest in it. Like Dreamers took eleven years to research and write. As we used to say in JDL – never again. A version of this interview first appeared in Jewish Book World Spring 2015 Vol. 33 No. 1. It is reprinted with permission. Philip K. Jason is Professor Emeritus of English from the United States Naval Academy. He reviews regularly for Florida Weekly, Jewish Book World, Southern Literary Review, and other publications. Please visit Phil’s website at www.philjason.wordpress.com.
is pleased to announce the 1st annual
Jewish Book Fair of Collier County
The Jewish Book Fair of Collier County will take place next season over e several days and at different venues throughout the area. It will feature about r ten authors talking about their new books. As details become available, they will be published in the Federation Star, in Federation eblasts and on www. e jewishnaples.org. To help create the best possible Jewish Book Fair, we need several committee members as well as readers to review potential authors/books. Book readers are needed during the two-week period of May 29 - June 11, 2015. If you are interested in being a book reader or on the committee, please email Ted Epstein at fedstar18@gmail.com. More detailed information will be sent in early May to those interested in helping make the 1st annual Jewish Book Fair of Collier County a huge success.
May 2015 Federation Star
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Jerusalem Post Crossword Puzzle “Character Actors” by Michael Wiesenberg
Difficulty Level: Challenging
Editor: David Benkof, DavidBenkof@gmail.com Solution on page 25 Hint: This is a challenging rebus puzzle where you will have to put Hebrew letters into some of the boxes to make the words fit. For example, instead of CASHIN, the answer is CA followed by the Hebrew letter Shin. Across Michael Landon vehicle) 1 Sukkah protection for when it’s 62 It could be mistaken for a vowel raining 5 “The Defiant Ones” Oscar nominee Down Williams 1 Klezmer instrument 9 Leave a poker game 2 Where Israel technically is found 12 Intel Israel customer 3 Country singer who starred on 13 Newsman David dubbed “The Broadway in 2001 as Irving Berlin’s Brain” by his CNBC co-workers Annie Oakley 14 Rachel’s is found in a Muslim 4 Original or most effective force in cemetery on the outskirts of an undertaking or work Bethlehem 5 Capital SSW of Jerusalem 15 Familiar PM 6 Aleph-bet equivalent 16 Rebound of sorts 7 ___ Speedwagon songwriter Adrian 17 Uzi fodder Gurvitz 18 They might request help getting 8 Original models started 9 Punctuation mark missing from the 20 Someone who likes to “cane” you? Torah 22 Approximation phrase, for which 10 Capital E of Jerusalem Israelis might say “B’erech” 11 “___ connected to the...” 23 Temple Emanu-El, Washington’s 13 “The Creation of Adam,” for one first synagogue, is in this city 14 “Eshet Chayil” verse: “She sets 24 Like a Jewish name ending in about her work vigorously; her -wich or -witz arms are strong for her ___” 27 Emulates Emma Lazarus 19 Emulates Elijah’s cup 28 Rabbis or Hebrew school teachers, 21 Va-ed often 23 Sound of a dropped scoop of 31 Spoon-bending Geller Cherry Garcia 34 States like 15A 24 Ladino ladies: Abbr. 35 Lod fig. 25 Subject of King David’s poetry 36 Gimme for Amy Alcott or Bruce 26 Whom Carrie referred to when Fleisher she said “Help me Obi Wan 38 How long it takes to say “Amen,” Kenobi. You’re my only hope.” for short 29 What a shmegege might be said to be 39 Cry that may accompany a shot 30 Initials at Lod 41 They let people watch SNL on a 31 “Modeh Ani” (prayer ___ Tuesday wakening) 43 “___ page 237 in your siddurim” 32 Makhtesh Ramon, essentially 44 Speak clearly 33 Haaretz supplies this, informally 47 Herzl, for short 36 More emesdik 48 Makes claims, as 15A is wont to 37 Richard Simmons specialty 49 Playground equipment that hangs 39 Chagall exhibition, e.g. on a pole 40 “Psst, you!” 53 “Climb ___ Mountain”: from 41 Hed Arzi’s music used to be on this Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The 42 Common Jerusalem street sight Sound of Music” 44 Either side of a 50-50 proposition 54 Many an Israeli start-up 45 Northern Canadian territory 56 Jacob to Rachel and Leah: “___ 46 He was born Jerome Lester Horwitz that your father’s attitude toward 47 Phi Delta ___ (fraternity that me is not what it was before” barred Jews until 1954) (Genesis 31:5) 49 Neon fish 57 Aleph-___ 50 Bim’heyra be’yameinu 58 Speak, as 15A did before Congress 51 Night show host who spoke to on March 3, 2015 Toronto’s UJA Campaign Launch 59 Israeli pickles usually come in 2015 them 52 “___ We Forget” (Holocaust 60 America Ferrera’s “Ugly ___” slogan) 61 “I ___ Teenage Werewolf” (early 55 A Gershwin
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