A conference in New York today putatively aimed at reviving Jewish opposition to the Iraq war–six years after the barn door opened, and all the horses went down the hill with fiery nostrils–was actually devoted to soulsearching over the Jewish role in that war, something I have always called for, and began, amazingly, with a poem by Melanie Kay/Kantrowitz that she introduced in this manner.
She recalled that at David Dellinger’s funeral, Tom Hayden said that Dellinger had said that you should "use your body to stand up to evil." Kaye/Kantrowitz then said:
body in exactly this way."
You could hear a pin drop. The hundreds of conference-goers were stunned; I imagine many disapproved. And yet: This was said by a poet today at a synagogue conference in New York. May the healing begin?
