In remembrance: Rabbi Elmer Berger, 27 May 1908 - 6 October 1996.

It is with great sadness that I and the other editors of the Arab Studies Quarterly say farewell to a friend, Elmer Berger, who died on 6 October 1996. I first met Rabbi Berger twenty-five years ago. I remember him then and throughout his distinguished life as a warm and gracious person. He was consistently anxious to listen, willing to learn, and, most especially, intellectually passionate about his belief that a Jewish state in Palestine was an enormous tragedy for humanity, especially Jews and Palestinians.

He was a great friend of the Association of Arab-American University Graduates and of this journal. He contributed to the Arab Studies Quarterly - his article on the Gulf War in 1991 titled "A Tangled Web: Israel and the Gulf," was a particularly insightful piece on Israel's "mischievous ventures into the affairs of the Gulf." He was a speaker on numerous occasions at AAUG conventions. A prolific writer and author of six books, his was a voice of unparalleled reason which demanded justice for the Palestinian people. This has not been a popular opinion for Americans to hold. But he did so with a determination founded in the belief that this was the correct moral position. Since the publication of his widely read essay in 1942 called, "Why I am a non-Zionist," Rabbi Berger was an outspoken critic of Jewish nationalism. This harsh judgment came from the knowledge that unbridled nationalism had to be avoided and that Judaism would be tainted were it to become associated with a nation-state. Of course, he was clairvoyently correct in both assessments.

We shall miss his honest counsel and look forward to the day when his dream of justice and equity in the Middle East becomes reality.

William W. Haddad Editor