Between Jew and Arab. David N. Myers. Published by Brandeis University Press. For additional information about this book

Transcription

1 Between Jew and Arab David N. Myers Published by Brandeis University Press Myers, N.. Between Jew and Arab: The Lost Voice of Simon Rawidowicz. Waltham: Brandeis University Press, Project MUSE., For additional information about this book No institutional affiliation (21 Jan :43 GMT)

2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing a book is, in most cases, a col labo ra tive ef fort, and surely so in this case. The re spon sibility for any er rors re mains wholly mine, but I must acknowl edge with deep grati tude those in di vidu als and in sti tu tions whose ex pert as sis tance and kind sup port made this book pos sible. The Lu cius N. Lit tauer Foun da tion, as it so often has in the field of Jew ish stud ies, ena - bled the pub li ca tion of this book through a gen er ous sub sidy. I am privi - leged to work at an in sti tu tion, UCLA, that val ues the im por tance of research. Thanks are due the UCLA Fa culty Se nate, Hu manities Dean Tim Stow ell and So cial Science Dean Re ynaldo F. Ma cias for their fi nan cial support for this book. Much of my time at UCLA over the past four years has been spent di rect ing the Cen ter for Jew ish Stud ies, a chal leng ing and thrill - ing as sign ment at once. Man ag ing our very busy sche dule, not to men tion my life, would simply not be pos sible with out the ex traor di nary staff of the cen ter: David Wu, Gina White, Mary Pin ker son, and my close col league of ten years, our won drously ef fi cient and for bear ing as sist ant di rec tor, Vivian Ho len beck. In the course of re search ing the book, I made use of the fol low ing ar - chives and relied on the kind ness of the fol low ing in di vidu als: the Ameri - can Jew ish Ar chives (Kevin Prof fitt), the Ro bert D. Far ber Ar chives and Spe cial Col lec tions at Bran deis Uni ver sity (Karen Ab ram son), the Cen tral Zion ist Ar chives (Batya Le shem), the Cen tral Ar chive of the He brew Univer sity (Etty Ala gem), the Chi cago Jew ish Ar chives of the Sper tus In sti tute of Jew ish Stud ies (Joy King sol ver), the Jew ish Na tional and Uni ver sity Li brary Ar chives (Rivka Plesser), the Uni ver sitätsar chiv of Hum boldt- Univer sität in Ber lin, and the Lon don Met ro poli tan Ar chives. A par ticu larly hearty thanks goes to Ben Ravid who, as noted in the in tro duc tion, was un stint - ing in an swer ing every re quest, large and small, and in grant ing me full access to the Rawi dow icz Ar chive lo cated in the base ment of his home. A num ber of col leagues and friends were kind enough to take time from their busy sche dules to read vari ous parts of the manu script. I thank Andy Apter, Zvi Ben-Dor Ben ite, David El len son, Ruth Gavi son, Liora Hal pe rin, 301

3 302 acknowledgments Hagit Lav sky, Nadera Shal houb Ke vorkian, Mena chem Lor ber baum, Adam Rubin, David Ru der man, Chaim Seid ler-feller, Nomi Stolzenberg, and Roger Wal dinger. Par ticu lar thanks go to those who read the en tire manu script and whose criti cal com ments sig nifi cantly im proved its con tent and style: Mi chael Be ren baum, David Biale, Ra anan Bou stan, Mi chael Bren ner, Mi chael A. Meyer, Derek Pen slar, Ben Ravid, and Anita Sha pira. I also thank Stepha nie Cha sin, who read every line of the text with her typi cally keen eye. Jake Cun ning ham and Hil lel Eyal pro vided out stand ing research as sis tance that was of in dis pensable value to the com ple tion of this pro ject. As al ways, David Hirsch pro vided ex pert bib lio graphic help from his perch as Ju daica li brarian at the Young Re search Li brary. Col leagues at Bran deis Uni ver sity have been sup por tive of this pro ject from the be gin ning. Eu gene Shep pard, former stu dent and dear friend, care fully read the book and passed it on for con sid era tion by the Tau ber Insti tute for the Study of Eu ro pean Jewry. The in sti tute s ex ecu tive di rec tor, Syl via Fuks Fried, is a per son of ex cep tional com pe tence, dis cern ment, and charm who guided the book through to the Uni ver sity Press of New Eng land (UPNE) of which Bran deis Uni ver sity is a con stitu ent mem ber. Thanks are also due Je huda Re in harz, presi dent of Bran deis Uni ver sity and Tau ber ser ies gen eral edi tor, for con sent ing to in clude the book in the ser ies. The Press al ways seemed to me the most ap pro pri ate venue for a book about one of Bran deis most inter est ing early fa culty mem bers. I thank UPNE s edi tor-in-chief, Phyl lis Deutsch, for her sage ad vice and will ing - ness to take on a book of this na ture, as well as the book s able copy edi tor, Betty S. Wa ter house. To my on go ing mar vel, Los An geles re mains a vi brant in tel lec tual, cultu ral, and so cial mi lieu. I grate fully ac knowl edge the friend ship of Steve Aron, Sharon Brous, Adam Rubin, Teo Ruiz, Hi lary Schor, Chaim Seid ler- Feller, Da niel So katch, and, with deep sad ness, the late R. B. Kitaj, for ad - ding so much stimu la tion and spice to life. The an chor of it all, though, is my family. Nomi Stol zen berg re mains the love of my life, my best friend, and most care ful reader. She man ages to bal ance the com pet ing de mands of her own car eer and our family with great skill and com pas sion. Our proud est crea tion is the stu pen dous trio of daugh ters with whom we ve been blessed: Tali, Noa, and Sara. They are the lights of our life and have been up per most in my thoughts through out the writ ing of this book. Nomi and I have tried to in cul cate in them the val ues of self-re spect and re spect

4 acknowledgments 303 for oth ers in equal meas ure, often with the in ex tri cably en twined fate of Jews and Arabs in mind. It is my hope that they will con tinue the strug gle for peace and jus tice that re mains so ur gent in our day. This book is dedi cated to Ar nold J. Band. It was a fate ful en counter with Arnie as a senior in col lege that sealed my fate as a Jew ish his to rian. I have had the privi lege of know ing him as a teacher, and for the last sev en teen years at UCLA, as a col league and friend. Not with stand ing his fa mously iras cible de meanor, he has seen to this tran si tion with re markable ease and good will; in deed, his ex am ple is a pow er ful in spi ra tion to me. He and his wife Ora have been a font of va luable in for ma tion about Simon Ra wido wicz based on their en count ers with him in Bos ton in the 1950s. Above all, Arnie agreed to join me in trans lat ing Rawi dow icz s chal leng ing He brew text, Between Jew and Arab. With out his mas ter ful com mand of He brew lit erary style and his tory, the chap ter would have re mained an un readable mess. Arnie also read every page of this book with his cus to mary acuity. He de voted so much time and en ergy to this task not be cause he shares Rawi dow icz s (or my) po liti cal per spec tive. Rather, he is ever the teacher, ge n- uinely inter ested in new ap proaches while in sis tent on at tend ing to the wis dom of the past. In the case of this book, he knew when to en cour age and when to re strain. He also knew to ap pre ciate Simon Rawi dow icz s great strengths, as well as the weak points in his ideo logi cal and po liti cal pro ject. Arnie s clarity and open-mind ed ness helped bring this book to life; both qualities strike me as es sen tial in under stand ing the cen tral issue the Arab Ques tion that lies at its core. Illustration Credits Images on pages 21, 22, 25, 26, 27, 38, 42, 43, 55, 56, 67, and 68: Courtesy of the Rawidowicz Archives. Image on page 34: Courtesy of the Central Zionist Archives. Image on page 37: Reprinted from Atlas Historyczny Polski (Warsaw: PPWK, 1977). PPWK S. A. POLAND Prof. Ładogórski T. Images on pages 45, 46, and 48: Courtesy of the Universitätsarchiv, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin. Image on page 65: Courtesy of the London Municipal Archives. Image on page 80: Courtesy of Chicago Jewish Archives, Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies. Image on page 83: Courtesy of the Robert D. Farber University Archives, Brandeis University.

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