LET’S BE FRANK(L)

GIVING THE VIENNESE THEIR DUE

I had been reading a noteworthy new book by Richard Cockett, Vienna: How the City of Ideas Created the Modern World, which mentions Viktor Frankl in the context of Vienna’s creative contributions to the world, but—as I now can better recognize—he’s discussed all too briefly. The bright blue-on-white cover of Moment’s Winter 2025 issue featuring Noah Phillips’s long-form profile of Frankl (“In Search of the Meaning of Viktor Frankl”) immediately sucked me in and held my attention. From Frankl’s pre-Holocaust upbringing and early thinking about psychiatry to his depressing Holocaust experience; from logotherapy’s focus on the will to find meaning vis-à-vis Sigmund Freud’s pleasure principle and Alfred Adler’s will to power to the emergence of the influential and still-best-selling book Man’s Search for Meaning; to Professor Frankl’s somewhat arrogant life after achieving global fame—I found it to be a holistic portrait that expanded my growing appreciation of Vienna’s history and the extraordinary role played by its Jewish population.
Bert Foer
Washington, DC

FRANKL’S LESSONS

I simply cannot thank you enough for the extensive insights into the life, mind and writings of Viktor Frankl. Man’s Search for Meaning is the only book I ever read that caused me to immediately purchase and give copies to all of my relatives and close friends. In addition, during my scores of teaching years at the secondary and university levels, I was able to share, with my all-too-often beleaguered, poverty-stricken, refugee-origin and/or physically and mentally challenged students the admonishment: You can choose your own attitude in dealing with what you face. The fact that Frankl loved to laugh about puns, as do I, (re)affirms his genuine humanity.
Bill Younglove
Lakewood, CA

GOOD MEDICINE

SEND IN THE CLOWNS

Thank you for the thoughtful and nuanced article about medical clowning in Israel. (“Do Clowns Have the Power to Heal?” Winter 2025). Josie Glausiusz captured in amazing ways both the deeply human aspects of medical clowning and the scientific evidence I and others have published on its effectiveness. Her thorough research into the therapeutic benefits of medical clowning helps validate what we see every day in our work. It helps to show that medical clowning isn’t just about entertainment but is a serious therapeutic intervention that can make a real difference in patients’ recovery.
Maya Barash
Vancouver, British Columbia
Editor’s note: Barash is a pediatrician who recently published a study on the positive effects of medical clowning in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

A CLOWN TOUR TO RUSSIA

My wife, my two teenage Russian-speaking children and I went on the 2000 Patch Adams Clown Tour to Russia—orphanages, nursing homes, hospitals. Three weeks. It was our first clowning experience. We thought we were there to entertain people and dressed outlandishly, outfitted with rubber chickens, juggling balls and red rubber noses.

But my two most memorable experiences were having a severely autistic child grab my finger and run me around in circles for five minutes and sitting in the room of a very elderly actress as she recounted her triumphs on stage and screen—in Russian, which I didn’t speak. Just being there was all they wanted or needed. Glausiusz’s article explains so eloquently why those experiences of 25 years ago are still so vivid in my memory.
Dave Thompson
Bellingham, WA

BEHIND THE RED NOSE

Thank you for such a thoughtful and uplifting article about the heroic medical clowns in Israel who bring so much joy, distraction, healing and “normalcy” to the most harrowing times in people’s lives. I have spent many years leading programs in hospitals and truly respect the “serious” healing that clowns bring to patients, families and the hospital staff. “Do Clowns Have the Power to Heal?” eloquently takes us “behind the red nose” to hear how the clowns approach their important work to bring connection, levity and silliness into the darkest times in young children’s lives and elevate the spirits of everyone they encounter. And thank you to Josie Glausiusz for sharing her touching personal story. May she and her family take comfort from the fun and meaningful encounters they experienced during her son Aryeh’s illness.
Lisa Honig Buksbaum
New York, NY

DUELING ABRAHAMS

AN UNEXPECTED ORIGIN STORY

In Robert Siegel’s book review (“A Tale Of Dueling Abrahams,” Winter 2025), he says author Anthony Julius rejects positive interpretations of the Akedah and that “Julius offers six different and more problematic readings.” It reminded me of my favorite interpretation, which I came across this Rosh Hashanah in a conversation between comedian Alex Edelman and Rabbi Sharon Brous at IKAR (it’s on YouTube). Edelman suggests that when this story was first written, child sacrifice was common practice in the Middle East among surrounding religions. The shocking part for original audiences would not have been that G-d asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, but rather that Abraham was stopped from doing so. Edelman explains that Judaism itself may have emerged partly as a rejection of child sacrifice: “The reason Judaism was created, frankly, was most likely because people didn’t want to sacrifice their kids anymore.”
Daniel Burstein
Jacksonville, FL

MOMENT DEBATE

TELL IT TO THE JUDGE!

In a recent “Moment Debate” both sides made some good points, and some were lacking (“Should there be term limits for Supreme Court justices?” November/December 2024). However, neither addressed the elephant in the room, which is the fact that people are living longer, and their physical and mental health decline as they age—something the writers of the Constitution never considered.

There is now a real possibility that justices could develop dementia before they realize that they need to retire. We could well have justices spend years unable to recognize their colleagues, much less issue a decision. This dwarfs all other arguments. Thus, it is imperative that Supreme Court justices, and all others with lifetime appointments, instead have term limits imposed or mandatory retirement ages.
Deborah Prigal
Washington, DC

MOMENT DEBATE, ONLINE

“Moment Debate” in the Winter 2025 issue asked the question, “Should there be broad limits on teen social media use?” Russell Shaw, the head of school of Georgetown Day School in Washington, DC, answered yes to this question, while Anya Kamenetz, a journalist whose books include The Art of Screen Time: Digital Parenting Without Fear, said no.

The responses to the debate on Moment’s social media platforms tended to agree that social media use was a problem but didn’t necessarily think it was a school’s or government’s role to curb it. “Yes, teens spend way too much time on social media,” said Ron Barnes on LinkedIn. “Parents should regulate what their teens are using, not the government.” Agreeing, May Shubert on X, said, “Teen social media use shouldn’t be controlled by government regulation, but by their parents who are responsible for them until [the] age of 18.”

Some on X think limiting social media for teens is a parenting issue, but at the same time they are concerned by what teens can be exposed to on the internet. “You have to be an adult (18 years or older) to do many things in this country. I don’t trust 16-year-olds to vote,” one commenter said, adding they also shouldn’t be able to drive and that “there are a lot of adult things on the internet and TV. Needs to be looked at.” Others, such as Carolyn Hoxton posting on X, feel it would be difficult for parents to control their children’s social media usage. “Good luck with that. Do you have a teenager????” she asked rhetorically. And the question of whether or not restricting social media use should be a general issue rather than a teen one was also raised by one commenter on X, who said, “There should probably be limits on ADULT social media use too.”

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