dcs@homxa.UUCP (D.SIMEN) (04/14/84)
Once I got around Martillo's way of saying things -- and his way is often unforgivably rude and insulting -- I find that I agree with much he says. Committed Jews *do* find programs like "Bridgette and Bernie" objectionable. They *are* angered by so many who taste a tiny bit of Jewish culture -- perhaps in a 6-hour-a-week Hebrew school or a 4-hour-a- week Jewish Sunday school -- and decide, at age 13 or so, that it's not for them. In Jewish culture (as in all cultures except, perhaps, modern American) there are rights and wrongs, and for Jews assimilation is wrong. Individual Jews and non-Jews may not agree with this; the surrounding cultures generally don't agree (American culture exerts a strong push to assimilate into the mainstream); but *from a Jewish viewpoint* there is no room for argument. Not all assimilated Ashkenazim are or were ignorant. My father's father, whom I never knew, was a talented "talmid chochem" (to use the Yidish term) who decided, before he came to the U.S., to forsake the mitsvot and embrace a "secular Jewish" culture. This meant, alas, that my father *did* grow up ignorant of Hebrew and Aramaic, of Tanach and Talmud and much other litera- ture. What I have learned of Judaism has come with difficulty, but I have learned the joy of shmirat Shabat, of kashrut, of eating in a Sukah, and many other mitsvot that I now keep. I still have some distance to go, and much to learn. In any case, although I wish Mr. Martillo wrote in a fashion other than he does, I agree with much of what he writes -- perhaps not as completely as Andy Tannenbaum, but enough that I regret a bit of ad-hominem silliness that I recently perpretated. (I apologize, Mar Martillo.) May all have a happy, kosher and meaningful Pesah. Pesah is zman herutenu, and some may do well to remember that freedom is not license, it requires responsibility. Assimilation is complying completely with outside pressures; there is no freedom there at all. David Simen (David ben Mord'kai) ...!houxm!homxa!dcs