Despite the comments of ADL’s Abe Foxman, BeliefNet’s David Klinghoffer and others, we at Moment stand by our decision to include Rabbi Manis Friedman’s response to the question in the Ask the Rabbis section in the May/June 2009 issue: How should Jews treat their Arab neighbors? As we do for every issue, we invited a wide range of rabbis to comment on a question. We do this because it’s important to hear what different people think, even when we don’t agree with them. Incidentally, all the comments but one were more or less the same; only one took a different stand. Surely that very minority opinion deserves to be heard, even if it’s offensive to a lot of people. It’s crucial to know where people in our community stand. We can’t pretend different opinions don’t exist. This is why an independent publication is valuable and it is what makes Moment unique. Read the magazine and you will learn surprising things in every issue. Eric Alterman writes for us, as does David Frum. In the next issue we will hear from Gershom Gorenberg and Benny Morris. And of course, our Ask the Rabbis question and responses will be as provocative as usual.
—Editor Nadine Epstein and Moment editorial staff