response to gary erlbaum

i think many important points were raised this week during mr. erlbaums's discussion. what is the "obligation" of the jewish cause? adam raised the obvious question of how can we value one struggle over the next, even to the extent of saving one jew over three non jews. elisheva gave the poignant answer that no one would "morally" fault the saving of one's brother,sister,mother,etc. over a stranger. no one is necessarily making a qualitative statement about the value of one life over another, rather there does exist some means by which we can define our concentration of attention and action.

one may argue that there are plenty of non-jews to care for their concerns, but by mere virtue of the fact that they would not as quickly care for the jewish concerns, it is fundamentally our responsibility. we all know that were israel attacked by the arab nations, we would feel far more for the israeli plight than a rebellion in the ivory coast or uzbekistan. is that wrong? are we a people likened to a family? is that just social conditioning but false, or is the apologetics for the universality of humanity simply an intellectual game we play because we're in college and we can. and of course, the issue was raised that philosophically, we believe that the most successful way to truly right the world is through the perfection of the jewish people, and thus fulfilling the pre-requisites for being "a light unto the nation".

i mentioned that we all need to answer these questions for ourselves and find our own voices. perhaps the dialectic of friends could help strengthen that search.

personally, i remember having a dilemma which sent my liberal sensitivities off the deep end. i was in l.a. during the riots. my friend and i sat on the roof of his house, his gun fully loaded (i, of course, was more frightened of the gun than the riot)and watched as the mass of rioters made its way up la brea blvd, burning shopping plazas and looting stores. we had an interesting discussion about how we completely intellectually understand their predicament - the hatred, the oppression, the angst, pent-up frustrations, etc.. we would have been sure to write a phenomenal sociology report and would have otherwise strongly identified with their plight (even invoking similarities to the jewish historical experience) and done our uptmost to actively contribute to bettering south central LA. BUT, if one of those blacks or mexicans stepped one little toe on this property, we would have put a bullet between his eyes. that simple. they were not interested in being invited in for a cup of coffee and have us explain our liberal jewish views and love for them as human beings. we were only given one option - save ourselves, or die trying to be liberal. i hated being in that position, but there was no way out. i think that's when i began to first fulfill churchill's dictum.