Erik Arnold

YOUR GOLDEN YEARS REALLY CAN BE THE BEST YEARS OF YOUR LIFE
by: Ethel Warshafsky

THE PAPERLESS OFFICE
FALSE DREAM OR REALITY?
by: Jason A. Wach

JUDAH YOU ARE NOT ALONE
by: John Stembridge

Family Values and American Politics
by: Lawrence Alan Gottfried

Marlins on a roll
By: Tzachi Gadish /Photos by: Harry Linet

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
By Rabbi Kalman Packouz / Aish Hatorah

THE LOCKED BOX OR
LESSONS YET TO BE LEARNED
AN INTROSPECTIVE JOURNEY
Writen by: Rucha Laya

WHO IS AFFRAID OF PHOBIAS?
By: Tzachi Gadish

The South Florida Women's
Committee for Shaare
By: Jacob Sharon

THE AGE OF REASON
by: Erik Arnold

All societies have various rites of passage whereby the individual is considered to have reached a stage in which he is considered a fully competent, autonomous member of society. This age of reason coincides more or less with both mental and physiological changes in the person concerned.In Judaisim, the Bar Mitzvah ceremony marks the young boy's assumption of the rights and duties (at least religiously) of the grown man; in ancient Rome, the same transition was marked by the exchange of the childish cloak for the toga virilis. Nations, too, have their periods of sudden maturity, albeit without the ceremonial fanfare of the above. The United States, for example, entered into its own after World War one, beginning to assume the role its material and geographic position had almost predestined for it. The nations of Old Europe,on the other hand, emerged from the Great War in an arthritic, almost imbecilic condition from which they have not recovered to the present day. Then there are states such as Israel, which stand between a prolonged adolescence and creeping senility. The State of Israel, for all its newly found economic wealth,has yet to enter the stage of autonomy and maturity which is as necessary for a state's development as a person's. It's close dependance on the United States, while necessary in the past for political reasons, has much less validity today and has merely resulted in a suppression of Israel's own potentialities in favor of the stronger state. As long as Israel continues to look to the U.S. for military, monetary, and political aid without developing its own resources in these areas, it risks becoming a mere client state without the freedom to truly develop itself according to its own wants and needs. This is born out by the almost total dependance of the Israeli prime minister(whoever he may be) on cultivating good relations with the U.S. government , even to the detriment of his own people(Witness the Barak-Clinton debacle.) Also, for the past ten years, Israel has consistently tempered its military response to Arab depredations in order to avoid American displeasure and censure. From the Shamir government’s decision to refrain from retaliating against Iraq during the Gulf War to the present Sharon government’s “cease fire” with Arafat, Israel’s deference to US interests is obvious. Controversey over military deals with China and Turkey also resulted in Israel backing down to its friend. Israel has curtailed or reduce production of key components of its arms industry, such as the Merkava tank, in order to prevent direct competition with American arms manufacturers. While the U.S. has no qualms about following its "sacro egoismo", (sacred egotism), Israel is always looking over its shoulder to make sure its policies don't offend. Israeli culture has also suffered from an excess of American influence.

The combination of the original material along with its concomitant spinoffs has led to the Israeli public being force-fed a steady diet of mindless talkshows, overbearing commercials, and slick but souless films. One is strongly reminded of the essayist Ahad Ha'am's desire to form a new spiritual community in the "Promised Land" , one which would allow the Jewish people to develop a new civilization in accordance with its own inclinations and historical experiences. Ideally, this would be the way out; a Jewish state independant both culturally and politcally, finally able to take its rightfull place among the world's premier nations. The question now is, is it already to late?