From the Editor

Nadine Epstein

I recently returned from Israel, where I attended the eighth Herzliya Conference on the Balance of Israel’s National Security, an annual discussion of Israel’s current and future security concerns that attracts American and Israeli academics and policymakers. As in years past, the conference—sponsored by the Lauder School of Government and the Institute for Policy and Planning—drew current and former political leaders, including Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak, Natan Sharansky, Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu and Tony Blair. I arrived ready to hear participants and audience members speak their minds on divisive topics. I was not disappointed.

The conference was devoted to security, but peace talks were on everyone’s minds in the wake of the Bush Administration’s recent initiative to restart dialogue that might lead to a final settlement. General Moshe Yaalon, the former chief of staff of Israel’s military, made front-page news in Israel when he called it “failed thinking” to believe that Israel “needs to find a solution now.” First, he argued, Palestinians must “prove their ability to rule” by implementing educational, political, security, societal and economic reform.

Amid great security and flashing camera lights, Prime Minister Olmert countered that throughout most of his adult life he had “sifted through the range of facts,” choosing those that convinced him that compromise “was forbidden and impossible, inadvisable and dangerous.” Now he promised to pursue the “narrow and fragile opportunity” for peace.

Olmert did not bring up Jerusalem’s future in his speech but ever since he raised the subject last fall (although he has since publicly retreated), the city’s status as part of a final settlement with the Palestinians is again on people’s minds.

During a break in the conference, I took my son Noah—this was his first visit to Israel—on a meandering journey through Jerusalem’s Old City. We walked to the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. We craned our necks upward toward the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount (closed to non-Muslims that day). With the eyes of a young man excited to see places he had only heard about, Noah delighted in our free exploration of the Jewish, Christian and Arab quarters of the Old City and our wanderings through the insular neighborhoods of the “new” Jerusalem, both East and West. Later we toured the City of David, seeing the palace that archaeologist Eilat Mazar and others believe once belonged to ancient Israel’s King David.

As Americans, we encountered few physical barriers. There was the desk set up on Chain Street where two Israeli soldiers politely checked our progress toward the Temple Mount. There was the sad but necessary security checkpoint before entering the plaza of the Western Wall. And from the balcony of the home where we stayed, we could see the new border fence cutting across hills and valleys between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

But these physical barriers were nowhere near as imposing as the invisible divisions of deeply ingrained suspicion between Jews and Arabs, and between Jews and Jews. These aren’t silent divisions: It may be difficult for Americans to talk about the possibility of dividing Jerusalem but in Israel the subject is being vociferously discussed.

Like Olmert, we all know the arguments for maintaining the status quo. But in the hopes of opening a conversation in the American Jewish community, Moment asked Jewish and Arab writers to tell us: Can Jerusalem, the holiest of holy cities, be divided? Should it be, and if so how?

Those writers Moment Senior Editor Mandy Katz spoke with answered these questions with eloquence: Amos Elon, Etgar Keret, Hillel Halkin, Amos Oz, Naomi Ragen and Meir Shalev are all Israeli Jews. Sayed Kashua, Ali Khalili, Ghassan Khatib, Ali Qleibo and Elias Zananiri are Muslim and Christian Arabs.

As is the rule here at Moment, we don’t seek to tell you what to think but hope this collection of thoughts will provoke constructive discussion at dinner tables and in study groups. We invite you to join the conversation by sending your opinions to us at editor@momentmag.com.

Other riches abound in the magazine you hold in your hands. Moment Fellow David Zax recounts the often misunderstood but fascinating tale of how Jews came by their last names. (For those of you interested in tracing your own family names, we include a guide as well as links at momentmag.com.) Former Newsweek correspondent Sue Katz Miller profiles Devra Davis, the fiery scientist and proud Jew who warns us that environmental causes are being ignored in the war on cancer—at our peril.

Ori Nir examines schmooze, a word whose family tree has Hebrew roots and branches in most European languages, while Managing Editor Rebecca Frankel takes us on a side trip into history, revealing Hitler’s complicated relationship with his doctor—the one Jew Hitler saved.

We have a special treat for readers who grew up reading Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Children’s author Judy Blume talks to Associate Publisher Karin Tanabe about how openly discussing controversial subjects—religion and sex and everything else—is always the best strategy for kids and adults alike.

Happy Passover!