I too had not intended to write again, however, I must protest Mr. Ben-
Gad's statement that what I said in my previous posting was "dismissing
reviews that appear in ideologiclaly [sic] committed publications". In
fact I said: "At question is who published it and how this can alert
us to a possible *unwarranted* bias on the part of a reviewer or author."
Far from "dismissing" such reviews, I noted the potential problem they
might contain, and said that as readers we must be alert to this.
Mr. Ban-Gad then proceeds to expand his unfounded comments to the point
of absurdity, by asking an obviously rhetorical question: "should we be
dismissive of reviews in the journals Tradition and Reform Judaism?" And
then: "I think I would be crippling myself as a librarian if I was
dismissive of them." And I agree completely, especially since I was far
from being "dismissive"!
I clearly said what I had found out about "Azure" placed it "outside
the same league" as that of certain other publications, but again I did
not simply "dismiss" it as a source. In fact I said very clearly that I
would read Porath's article and "consider it alongside other materials
about Tom Segev's work". Indeed, I am grateful to Shmuel Ben-Gad for
bringing it to my attention. I only wish that he in turn would read Ian
Lustick's review essay of Karsh's book in "Survival"!
B'shalom,
Bernard Katz, former Head, Special Collections and Library Development
McLaughlin Library, University of Guelph
and founding Treasurer, AJL - Ontario Chapter
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