Ruth Atkin's Reflection

I loved Marcia’s deliberate and incisive thought and action. In Brit Tzedek she used the slogan of bringing the settlers home (meaning back within the Green Line). I thought it was brilliant. For a while many of us used Rabbi David Cooper’s paradigm of tending towards being a guardian or a prophet when it came to Israeli/Palestinian issues. She was the only “guardian” I knew who wasn’t unequivocally hawkish and supported a two-state solution through that perspective.

Later she would include me on literary invitations to read this or that, follow Persimmon and other journals and generally stay in touch. While she may be remembered most as a history-making feminist and lesbian in the Knesset she was also downright heimish, generous, and open-hearted.

We have lost a giant (and this is from someone who had a couple of inches on her).

Ruth Atkin

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