surely validates studying many tilings, notrnjust the Talmud. If Jewish edueationrnwere devoted to the holocaust, or if itrnconsisted of constant pilgrimages to thernstate of Israel, the same result might occurrn— or perhaps even a more satisfactoryone,rnsince an appeal to emotions (holocaustism)rnor the experience of ethnic loyalt}’rn(Israclism) demands much less thanrnis rec[uired by an appeal to intellect. It isrneasier to feci than to think, and emotionsrnalwa’s trump reason, except among therneducated few. Rabbi Wein’s incapacit)’rnto formulate a compelling answer out ofrnthe Torah for the value of studying thern’I’orah exemplifies the intellechial limitationsrnof integrationist Orthodoxy — thernOrthodoxy that reads, in F.nglish, thernJerusalem Post and the Jerusalem Reportrnand chooses to engage with the rest ofrnJewi’y.rnWith significant exceptions, in integrationist-rnOrthodoxy, Conservative, Reform,rnReconstruetionist, and Jewish-Renewal/rnNew Age Judai.sms, we find rabbisrnwitiiont Torah. That represents the failurernof a generation of rabbinical seminan’rnprofessors. The chain of tradition isrnas strong as its weakest link.rnJacob Neusner is Distinguished ResearchrnProfessor of Rehgious Studies at the Universityrnof South Florida and a professor ofrnreligion at Bard College.rnLetter FromrnSouth Africarnby Anthony P. EllisonrnOut of AfricarnOn Februar- 11, 1990, Nelson Mandelarnwalked out of prison and entered the lastrnremaining F.uropcan colony in Africa:rnSouth Africa.rnFrom all sides and nations, the hopernwas riiat the 72-year-old Mandela, convictedrnand imprisoned 27 ‘cars before forrntreason, would bring down the edifice ofrnapartheid and biuld, in its place, the newrnJerusalem. With his gracious, old-fashionedrncourtesies, mild manner, and temperedrnpronouncements, he appearedrneminently c|ualified to meet those expectations.rnIn espousing libcrt)’, equality, and fraternityrnover tyranny, discrimination, andrnretribution, Nelson Mandela was to negotiaterna place for South Africa in thernmodern world. Resentinent at the injusticesrnof white domination was to be eschewed.rnAll of South Africa’s people —rnthe “rainbow people,” not a minority—rnwere to be sovereign.rnMandela’s story was irresistible to writersrnwith a Maniehaean outlook. One hagiographyrnafter anotiier was delivered to arnworldwide public starved for heroes. Hernwas rapturously received everywhere inrnthe Western hemisphere. He was awardedrnthe Nobel Prize. Honorary doctoratesrnfell on his shoidders like confetti; hisrnname adorned streets, squares, andrnschools in every continent.rnThe skeptics were party poopers. ProfessorrnDonald Horowitz, a constihitionalrnexpert, was deemed unduly pessimisticrnwhen he judged democracy to be possiblern”but improbable in South Africa.”rnMargaret Thatcher, in the twilight of herrnreign, was rebuked for depicting thernconmiunists’ utopia as “cloud cuckoornland.” Professor Walter Williams was beingrnpolitically incorrect when he depictedrnthe African National Congress (ANC)rnand riic National Party (NP) as kindredrnspirits, opposed to liberal individualismrnand hell-bent on the continuation of arndisastrous collectivism. Joe Slovo, leaderrnof the Sourti African Communist Partyrn(SACP), implicitly rejected FrancisrnFukuyama’s thesis when he said that socialism,rnhaving failed everywhere else inrnthe world, “shall be built correctly for thernfirst time in South Africa.” There wasrnoutrage when Sir Laurens van der Post,rnwho had been a prisoner of war of thernJapanese, visited Mandela and declaredrnthat he appeared to have learned nothingrn”from the school of suffering.” And Prof.rnGeorge Ayittcy, an eloquent witiiess tornAfrica’s ]50st-colonial betrayal by itsrnemerging elite, was met with ineredidit}’rnwhen he counseled Mandela not to acceptrn]30wer.rnThe skepticism of tiiese informed andrnperceptive observers was founded onrnwhat they knew about the liberationrnmovement and on their observations ofrnthe parlous political and economicrncourse Africa had run during the postcolonialrnperiod. The elite that came tornpower in post-apartheid South Africarncomprised three groups. The smallest,rnand the most powerful, were the “exiles”rn—who, for the most part, had beenrneducated and acculturated not withinrnSouth Africa but inside the Soviet bloc orrnunder the strong influence of socialistsrnand communists in Western institutions.rnA second group had captured the leadershiprnof the trade unions. The third grouprnconsisted of assorted anti-apartheid activistsrnranging from religious leaders tornAfricanists.rnThese fiictions espoused philosophiesrnthat had in common an opposition tornmodernism and its potent transmitter,rnthe competitive market process. Africanistsrncalled for a rediscovery of African history.rnThe communists, although theyrnhad always been suspicious that thernAfricanists meant liberation to be enjoyedrnexclusively by blacks, were carefulrnnot to undercut the Africanist mythrnshaped around Mandela. I heir intentionrnwas to conflate the Africanist withrnthe socialist conception of liberation thatrnwas to spring from the radical transformationrnof South Africa.rnSince 1990, the South African liberationrnmovement has won a dazzling seriesrnof victories. It negotiated a political settlementrnwith the white minority andrnwrote a constitution fliat serves its transformativerngoals; it has won two electionsrnwith overwhelming majorities; and itrnlaunched the transformation programrnwhich came to be known as the “nationalrndemocratic revolution.” The electionrnof 1999, however, was the movement’srncoup de grace, giving the ANC-SACPCOSA’I’Urnalliance the two-thirds majorityrnwhich will enable it to proceed towardrnits one-party goal without having to answerrneither to an internal or to an externalrnopposition. The constitutional protectionsrnof private property, minority rights,rnand the separation of powers can now berndismantled and the national democraticrnrevolution realized.rnThese have been pyrrhic victories.rnUnemployment continues to rise. Accumulatedrnjob losses from 1989 to 1999rnreached almo.st 850,000. There has beenrna marked increase in the emigration ofrnskilled people from all racial groups.rnSome 20 percent of whites (who total 4.4rnmillion of South Africa’s 40.5 millionrnpersons) travel on a British passport. Arnstudy conducted by Trade and IndustryrnMonitor, an independent research unitrnat the University of Cape Town, foundrnthat 233,609 South Africans had movedrnto the United States, the United Kingdom,rnCanada, Australia, and NewrnZealand between 1989 and 1997.rnWith the normalization of relation-rnMAY 2000/41rnrnrn