contradictory facts? First, not everybodyrnwho identifies himself as ethnically Jewishrnpractices the religion, and in thernUnited States many do not. Second, justrnas there are many Christianities, whichrnintersect in a few things but part companyrnin manv, so there arc diverse Judaisms,rneach with its own account of what thernTorah rcc[uircs of holy Israel, God’s firstrnlove. Some of the several Judaisms presentrnthe ‘Ibrah in its classical formulation,rnothers do not.rnBut if people want to know the view ofrnabortion that Judaism has set forthrnthrough the ages and that today shapesrnthe aspirations of the vast majority ofrnJews who practice Judaism in the State ofrnIsrael, Europe, and the outlying Diaspora,rnlisten carefully to Efrat. The Torah ofrnSinai speaks through them—and pleads,rnalong with them, “4ommy, let me live!”rnBut the language is its own: “Choosernlife.”rnChristians can make sense of the di-rn’ersitv of Judaisms when they comparernCatholic Christianit”s understanding ofrnthe task of Peter with that of Unitarian orrnMormon Christianities, Anglican liturgyrnwith the evangelical, the doctrine of thernChurch put forth by Pope John Paul IIrnwith that of Billy Graham, and thernChristologies preached in any tenrnchurches chosen at random in St. Petersburg,rnFlorida, with those set forth in St.rnPetersburg, Russia. The Church’s onernfoundation may well be Jesus Christ thernI .ord, but in everyday life, many Christianitiesrncompete, and the same is truernfor Judaisms. That is why, when proabortionistsrnclaim to represent and reflectrn”the Jewish” or “the Judaic” view,rnthe right c[uestions are, “Which Jew?”rnand “Which Judaism?”rnI offer the prayer that, when God sortsrnmatters out. He will hear the unbornrnchild whose still small voice Efrat hears,rnas Elijah heard God’s voice in the silencernof the storm—arid whose life and whosernmother’s life and happiness Efrat deemsrnhol-. And that is the commanding voicernof Sinai that, for here and now, we mustrncall the Torah. If, as the Torah teaches,rnours is the God of mercy, then thatrnprayer must find its way to God’s ear.rnJacob Neusner is Distinguished ResearchrnProfessor ofRehgious Studies at the Universityrnof South Florida and Professor ofrnRehgion at Bard College. With his son,rnNoam M.M. Neusner, he has recentlyrnpublished The Book of Jewish Wisdomrn(Continuum).rnForeignrnCorrespondencesrnby William MillsrnDown Ecuador Way, Part IrnLatin elections are such vibrant theater,rnunlike our plastic-coated, high-tech soaprnoperas, I thought I might catch the presidentialrnelection in Ecuador this year.rnBesides, there was an off-again, on-againrnwar with Peru to give an edge to the trip.rnNot long into the journey 1 got all thernedge I would need for the summer. Thernfirst leg of my Continental flight fromrnI louston to Panama was interrupted byrnthe captain who tactlessly began, “Ladiesrnand gentlemen, I’ve got some bad news.”rnBefore I left, the Valujet crash was still onrnthe national mind. Llalfway to Panama,rnthe crew had just discovered that thernoxygen equipment was not functioningrnproperly and that we could not make itrnon over the Andes into Quito, which isrnjust under 10,000 feet. Thus anotherrnnight in Houston.rnApproaching Quito the next nightrnthousands of twinkling city lightsrnconfirmed what the lady next to mernexplained, that the city was long andrnnarrow, set between two ranges ofrnmountains. The South American ExplorersrnClub had booked me into an inexpensivernplace called the El Loro Verdern(the Green Parrot). The cantina acrossrnthe street provided gratuitously a salsarnbeat until the wee hours, and there werernseven eruptions of what sounded likerngunfire, but could have been fireworks.rnNearly every business and apartmentrnhouse has an armed guard. I moved thernnext day to a quiet neighborhood andrntook a room in a house where it turnedrnout mostly American college students ofrnvarious ages lived.rnThe first primary had already takenrnplace and the candidates had been whitfledrndown to Jaime Nebot of the PartidornSocial Cristiano and Abdala Bucaram ofrnthe Partido Roldosista Ecuatoriano.rnNebot had come out on top and most ofrnthe pundits and pollsters were predictingrna Nebot win. This meant the voters ofrnthe small conservative party and those ofrnthe several leftist parties had to choosernbetween the two. And I mean had tornAmbassador Romero.rnchoose, for voting is compulsory inrnEcuador. If you do not get your receiptrnfor voting, there are many things yourncannot do thereafter, like get a passport,rnmunicipal permits, etc. One could,rnhowever, leave the ballot blank, “bianco,”rnor vote “nulo,” “no one.” The percentagernof nulos went as high as 20 percentrnin one province, with a nationalrnaverage of 11 percent “nulos” and onernpercent “blancos.”rnA couple of days before the secondrnprimary vote on July 7, I visited thernAmerican ambassador’s residence for thern4th of July picnic (held actually on thern5th). Ambassador Romero and his staffrnwere decked out in Western clothes andrna cowboy band called “Texas” providedrnthe music. The picnic was open to allrnAmerican citizens living in the countryrnwho had the price of admission (4,000rnsucrcs, or about $1.33). There were pieeatingrncontests, climbing-the-grcasedpolerncontests, and even some line-dancingrnlexas style. Besides the traditionalrnhot dogs and hamburgers, wc had Americanrngyros and falafcl. Nothing was freernso the taxpayers back home did not havernto pick up the tab. “Republicans Abroad”rneven had a booth. The few businessmenrnI was able to talk with seemed to think arnBucaram victory would be a disaster.rnThe ugly word “nationalization,” of everythingrnfrom banks and insurance companiesrnto oil, was uttered.rnOut on the street, nobody seemed tornknow what Abdala Bucaram would do.rnNebot was more of a known quantity. Itrnwas felt, I gather, that he would be a continuationrnof the Sixto government.rn’I’here had been an extended effort un-rnDECEMBER 1996/37rnrnrn