Feb 23, 2014
Dear Dr. Finkelstein:
I just saw news that your friend Musa Abu Hashhash was injured yesterday during the Hebron demonstration.
Please pardon the intrusion if this is an unwanted email; I’m writing to convey my sympathy and concern. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear that his injury was very serious, but incidents like these remind me that although I’m thousands of miles away I’m still personally connected to these awful events not only with bonds of responsibility (as an American, as a Jew) but through links that, however, indirect, can be surprisingly intimate. I know of him because of your work, and I feel for him because I know of your deep friendship. So now I feel, though I’ve never met him, that a friend of mine has been attacked — adding a sense of personal violation to the more generalized outrage.
Hoping for better news.
Michael L.
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