Bernard Katz does not quote the first paragraph of my review of
Three Wishes in which, like Anne Dublin, I pointed out the problems
with the book. It says in part: "
The Canadian author of this book brings to it assumptions that will
set off alarm bells. One is that the United Nations is an honest
broker. Another is that the West Bank is occupied. A third is that
refugee camps are an inevitable result of the conflict. But how many
children reading the book will have the knowledge to challenge these
assumptions or to know that they represent an essentially
pro-Palestinian argument?"
I agree with much of what David Elezar says but "committing
national suicide" is too strong a term for placing a book like Three
Wishes, in which children on both sides of the conflict speak, in
library collections. Jewish librarians are not alone in waging the
struggle for children's hearts and minds so we have to assume (and
hope) that parents and teachers will do their part to teach the full
history of Israel and Zionism. Our job is to provide the resources
for them to do it and including Three Wishes in library collections,
in my opinion, is part of that job.
Linda Silver
Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author
and are not necessarily endorsed by the AJL
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