From the Newsletter | When Opinion Columnists Turn out to Be Neighbors

At Moment we talk a lot about the mission of carving out space for opposing views. This was never the hearts-and-flowers project some people pretend—contemplating true disagreement about things that matter is scary—and these days it’s getting scarier. Even Jews, with so much in common, differ on so many fundamentals lately, and detest one another’s views so much, that it’s hard to know where a genuinely enlightening debate can even begin.  

So maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised when two of our longtime columnists filed unusually passionate and sweeping essays for the fall issue opinion section—and that they seemed to have been written from and about two completely different Israels, or possibly two different planets. Fania Oz-Salzberger, a left-leaning historian and essayist whose 2024 piece “A Quick Guide to Zionism in Hard Times” was one of our most-clicked ever, offers an anguished plea for Israel’s friends to shun its government as illegitimate. Naomi Ragen, a novelist and playwright who’s been writing rock-ribbed conservative commentary for Moment since before my tenure, thinks Israel has emerged stronger than ever from its travails and has never been more united. 

It felt odd simply to post them as if they fit in the same universe, without comment. And hey, it’s the season of reflection. So just out of curiosity, I sent each of them an advance proof of the other’s column, asking the same question: “I’m curious if you think there’s any common ground left between you…if there’s an Israel in there somewhere that the two of you would (conceptually, anyway) agree on?”

The opening sentences of Ragen’s answer, which arrived first, were more than I had bargained for. 

Dear Amy—I read Fania’s piece, which reflects that of Israel’s left, and we disagree strongly about everything. But perhaps this might interest you. Fania lives across the street from me (literally) in Zichron Yaakov…

Sure enough, these two adversaries from different planets are, in fact, neighbors. 

When Oz-Salzberger’s answer arrived the next day, it echoed both the proximity and the disagreement. She noted that not only do she and Ragen live on the same street, they recently had a dispute in a neighborhood WhatsApp group, where Ragen posted a political comment others considered extreme and for which she later apologized—an action Oz-Salzberger told me she respected. However, she takes issue with Ragen’s view of Jewish unity: “Steeped in grief, we feel that some Israelis are rejoicing even as our common home, as we knew and loved it, is going up in flames.”

As for Ragen’s column, Oz-Salzberger wrote: 

As the saying goes, I couldn’t agree less. It’s sad, but there it is. Perhaps the only common thing we have is our call to recruit the ultra-Orthodox to the army, but that’s a rather weak common denominator, considering the enormous abyss between us. It’s not only about opinions, not even about values (in a nutshell: Do Jews’ lives and human dignity matter more than those of non-Jews?).

We disagree on our view of reality itself. Perhaps we also differ in our level of frankness: Ms. Ragen does not reveal what her preferred solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is. Some things are left unsaid.

I recognized the anecdote about the WhatsApp group. Ragen’s mail had recounted it this way:

Our street has a WhatsApp group in which neighbors can borrow a cup of sugar, get the phone number of a plumber or check if there is a water shortage.

Several neighbors have used this space for political purposes, and all of them are leftists. For four years, I refrained from getting involved, but a few weeks ago, someone decided to use it to advertise a rally for Yair Golan’s new political party. Golan, a hero of the left, once called IDF soldiers murderers.

This was too much for me. 

I sent a post saying we should refrain from using this space for political purposes, and we should leave politics off our streets and inside our homes. It was bad enough we had to read everyone’s banners. And I personally thought Yair Golan was a traitor.

Well. People were furious.

I went to the Kotel a week later and had a long talk with God. Afterwards I realized that no matter our differences, we are the beloved people of Israel, and that my neighbors who had welcomed me so warmly, and who every day were willing to help each other, were good people, and I had insulted them. So I uploaded an apology saying these things and adding that we were going through difficult times. That we all wanted the same thing, but had different opinions on how to get there. And that in that dialogue, the word ‘traitor’ had no place. I apologized and asked for forgiveness.

Fania sent me a lovely reply thanking me for my post. 

I thought that this might interest you.

What did I learn from this exercise? Maybe not a lot. First, that Israel is an even smaller country than most of us Americans realize. Second, that if two people from different political spheres can’t find common ground in the realm of ideas, or even in the idea that they share common ground, maybe they will occasionally still find it in the literal common ground of the street, the neighborhood, the cup of sugar, the expression of human decency. And since politics is at some level an argument about how to order our lives together, maybe this is somehow relevant.

Can it be enough? Maybe a better question is: Enough for what? Enough to keep sharing the block without utter conflagration? Enough to get us through the next tempest? 

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts (send them to us at  editor@momentmag.com). Until then, we at Moment wish you a Happy New Year and a thoughtful and uplifting holiday season.