A man who must have cared about the fate of the Jews living in Israel went to great lengths to bring a great spiritual leader here so he could teach Israelis how to live in peace within ourselves, in the hope that this would ultimately help us make peace with our neighbors. Following the visit of this great spiritual leader, this man assisted the creation of local groups that continued to cultivate this inner peace and spent much of his valuable time and his hard-earned money on this endeavor.

A few years later, some of the people who were thus attempting to incorporate peace into their lives were sitting in a room with this man. He was talking to them about peace and stuff. Somehow, the words slipped out of his mouth. "I am not a Zionist". There was a gasp of surprise among the hearers. They were not accustomed to hearing such utterances. Especially not from such a very Jewish looking American (Canadian actually); especially when he had just been telling of his personal history, fleeing Nazi occupied Poland and starving in Siberia; especially when he was investing so much in a mostly Zionist group of people. Somehow it didn't add up.

What did he mean "not a Zionist"? Did he mean he believed we had no right to be in Israel in the first place? Did he mean we should now give up our sovereignty and accept Arab rule? Did he mean his dear old aunt in Kfar Saba should be turned out of her home in her eighties? And if he believed all these things, why was he spending so much of his energy and resources on helping us solve our conflicts?

Roots are one thing, Michael, but life is in the here and the now, as you very well know. Hebrew is live and kicking (literally?). Yiddish is dying. And that's okay. Sad maybe, but okay (This acceptance has taken me a while to reach). Your mother tongue has little use in today's world, because Hitler managed to destroy the world it thrived in. Maybe it would have died out anyway.

I feel offended that you, a person I like and admire so much, Michael, do not believe that Jews should have a homeland in the Historic land of Israel. Because that's what "not a Zionist" means, doesn't it? That or you don't care this way or that, which is obviously not the case.

So I am offended. That's my problem. I'll survive. Something else to look into and learn from.

I never got round to asking what you meant exactly by "not a Zionist" and here I am, judging, which is not fair, especially as you can't answer.

I ask myself if you are not expecting too much of people? Are you not reaching for the moon? Are you not offering us up as the proverbial sacrificial lamb? In a perfect world, countries and nations would not be necessary. The world is hardly perfect. Why is it we Jews who are expected to do without and suffer the consequences? (And not just any Jews - the unlucky ones (?) who didn't get to the "Goldene Medina" where the Jews were, for the large part, accepted as just another ethnic group of immigrants, like everyone else).