From the Editor

Nadine Epstein

Every year, we ask Mr. Bronson to sit at the head of our seder table. Mr. Bronson is 85 and African American. He was born in South Carolina and spent his early years living in a two-room farm cabin, subsisting for weeks at a time on turnips. “For breakfast we ate fried turnip roots, for lunch we had the leaves, for dinner boiled turnip roots,” he likes to say. The family—his beloved Mama and siblings—lived in poverty, sustained by picking cotton and beans.

By the time the family moved to Washington, DC in 1933, Mr. Bronson had learned what it was like to face overt discrimination based on skin color. “In the clothes store where Mama brought us to get fitted for winter, they served us Negroes in the basement. In other stores, colored people had to go to the back and wait for the white people to get served first.” Worse, Mr. Bronson recalls having to run and hide when picked on and needing to always be extremely polite to white people in order to stay out of trouble. “Mama always said ‘You say ‘Yes Ma’am, Yes Sir, No Ma’am’, and you say it short and quick so you won’t be called ‘uppity’ or ‘smart’.”

Mr. Bronson still carries these fears within him. When we first became friends, he avoided coming into my house when I invited him in for lunch, eating on the front stoop instead. It took me nearly a year to convince him that it was okay to come into a white woman’s home and eat at her table.

Years have passed and Mr. Bronson has become part of our family. This is one reason why he sits at the head of the table at the seder. Another is that he is the person among us with the closest connection to slavery. Through Mr. Bronson’s eyes, I have come to see clearly the societal vestiges of the slavery of African Americans and their long struggle for civil rights. Much healing remains to be done.

“My story has to be told over and over again to be understood,” Mr. Bronson says to me. As a Jew, I know exactly what he means. It’s been about four millennia and still the Jewish people take eight days out of every year to remember our ancestors who were enslaved. But there are also other enslaved peoples who must be brought to mind: UNICEF, for example, estimates that there are 246 million children worldwide who are forced to work, many of them against their will.

We here at Moment thought carefully about what to bring you for Passover this year. You will notice several themes running through this issue. One is the ever-evolving relationship between African Americans and American Jews. Evan R. Goldstein writes about black Zionists who are sending prayers and money to Israel. David Klinghoffer speaks out in favor of making reparations to African Americans for their enslavement and examines the textual origins of Jewish responsibility. We also review a new book that reveals what really went on in Crown Heights in 1991 after a car driven by a Lubavitch Jew killed a black child, setting off riots in which a Jewish student was stabbed to death.

This is the time of year when we think about exile and so we offer you an article on Ladino, the language of Sephardi Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 who resettled in the Ottoman Empire. Although my family speaks Yiddish, I find myself much enamored with this lovely tongue and its fight for survival in the modern world. Our cover story is on Edward R. Murrow, the famous broadcaster. Although it’s not widely known, Murrow began his career working for the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced German Scholars, rescuing Jewish and anti-Nazi German professors. It was an experience that led him to identify with Jews and Israel throughout his life. We profile Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar: Her discovery of what she believes is King David’s palace near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount has landed her on the crux of archaeology and politics.

We also bring you Jewish food, one of the many elements that bind our people together. Joan Nathan explores what makes Jewish food Jewish, while Claudia Roden explains her preference for Sephardi cuisine. In our book essay, Abe Opincar peruses Jewish cookbooks and finds far more than recipes.

We dedicate this issue to the people of New Orleans. Andrew Fox writes tellingly of his community’s struggle to rebuild. Moment is committed to helping and is delighted to sponsor the New Orleans International Jewish Music Festival. We encourage you to buy tickets and attend this special event as a way to support New Orleans’ Jews.

We are also proud to announce our 2005 Moment Book Awards for Young Writers.

We hope that you enjoy our April issue and find it meaningful. Have a wonderful Passover.