NPR 10-05:The Questions We Must Ask 尽管会有分歧，但争论却使我们走得更近

Tamar Duke-Cohan's Jewish family inspired in her a commitment to examine the moral implications of her actions

From NPR news, this is weekend edition. I’m James Hattori.

I believe in mystery.
I believe in family.
I believe in being who I am.
I believe in the power of failure.
And I believe normal life is extraordinary.
This I Believe.

This morning, This I Believe essay came to us from Tamar Duke-Cohan. She is a wife and a mother, she’s a business analyst¹ and she’s also an educator. Duke-Cohan teaches classes about the Holocaust² at Hebrew College’s Prozdor program in Newton, Massachusetts. Here is our series curator, independent producer, Jay Allison.

Tamar Duke-Cohan wrote about her belief that arises from the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. It’s important to remember she says that disagreement about Israel’s policies exists among the Israeli people and even within families. For her, the issue has been a focal point of her life, and writing about her belief, she said, was a way to deal with it. Here is Tamar Duke-Cohan with her essay for This I Believe.

I believe in asking hard questions and arguing about them. I grew up in Israel in the 70s with the shadows of the Holocaust. We children knew that the people with the blue numbers on their arms were survivors³, forcibly tattooed⁴ by Nazis⁵ in concentration camps such as Auschwitz. In my family too the holocaust left scars. My grandparents managed to escape Germany, but they left behind relatives and friends.

What beliefs do such collective memories create, especially when mixed in with the intensity⁶ of living with war and terrorism? In my family they created a commitment to examine the morality of our actions--a feeling that we have a duty to do the right, that is, the moral thing. Even though we agree about that, my mother and I disagree about the implementation⁷ of our commitment to moral awareness⁸.

My mother, who lives in Israel, believes that every action we take in our treatment of every individual must stand up to moral scrutiny⁹. In this context, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank seems to her to be absolutely immoral¹⁰. She also feels that the ongoing¹¹ occupation is tearing apart the fabric¹² of Israeli society. She therefore joined an organization called Machsom Watch whose volunteer women drive to military checkpoints in the West Bank daily. They monitor the soldiers’ behavior for perceived human rights abuses and advocate for Palestinians denied passage. Although many in Israel agree with their actions, my mother and her friends have been criticized for providing support to the enemy and even attacked.

Unlike my mother, I don’t live in Israel, nor can I view the war at such an individual level. I think the need to protect society as a whole is sometimes more important than the absolute commitment to each individual that my mother feels. Moral or not, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is a fact of life, as is a threat of terrorism. Given this realpolitik, I support the military checkpoints which have managed to halt suicide bombings despite their negative impact on Palestinian lives.

This is not to say that my mother doesn’t believe in the greater good nor that I’m indifferent to individual rights. The question is one of balance. Does Israeli need for security outweigh¹³ the importance of the rights of individual Palestinians? I believe it does and my mother believes it does not. The intellectual and ideological¹⁴ struggle in which my mother and I are engaged has at times been painful. We have remained close, however, and have even glimpsed islands of agreement as we navigate¹⁵ the rapids of discord¹⁶.

I attribute this to our shared belief in another idea, deeply rooted in Jewish tradition. This idea, to which I alluded¹⁷ earlier is that we are duty-bound to confront moral dilemmas¹⁸ and scrutinize¹⁹ implications of our actions. For me, this is the main lesson of the Holocaust. We must hotly debate, the political and ethical²⁰ questions posed by today’s complicated world. And we should sometimes disagree, avoiding the dangers of group-think while striving for compromise. That’s why I believe in asking hard questions and arguing about them.

Tamar Duke-Cohan with her essay for This I Believe. Duke-Cohan told us that she and her mother agree about almost everything else and although they make each other angry when they discuss this issue, they continue to talk every day.

If you would like to join the more than 30 thousand people who have submitted essays to our series, visit npr. org/thisibelive for information and to see what others have written. For This I Believe, I’m Jay Allison.

Jay Allison is co-editor with Dan Gediman, John Gregory and Viki Merrick of the book ''This I Believe''. The personal philosophies of remarkable²¹ men and women. Two weeks from now, Palestinian-born Terry Awol of Detroit tells us about her belief in resisting fear.

Support for This I Believe comes from the Prudential Retirement²².

1 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

2 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

3 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

4 tattooed   

v.刺青，文身( tattoo的过去式和过去分词 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击

参考例句：

• He had tattooed his wife's name on his upper arm. 他把妻子的名字刺在上臂上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sailor had a heart tattooed on his arm. 那水兵在手臂上刺上一颗心。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

7 implementation   

n.实施，贯彻

参考例句：

• Implementation of the program is now well underway.这一项目的实施现在行情看好。

8 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

9 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

10 immoral   

adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的

参考例句：

• She was questioned about his immoral conduct toward her.她被询问过有关他对她的不道德行为的情况。
• It is my belief that nuclear weapons are immoral.我相信使核武器是不邪恶的。

11 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

12 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

13 outweigh   

vt.比...更重，...更重要

参考例句：

• The merits of your plan outweigh the defects.你制定的计划其优点胜过缺点。
• One's merits outweigh one's short-comings.功大于过。

14 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

15 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

16 discord   

n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐

参考例句：

• These two answers are in discord.这两个答案不一样。
• The discord of his music was hard on the ear.他演奏的不和谐音很刺耳。

17 alluded   

提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• In your remarks you alluded to a certain sinister design. 在你的谈话中，你提到了某个阴谋。
• She also alluded to her rival's past marital troubles. 她还影射了对手过去的婚姻问题。

18 dilemmas   

n.左右为难( dilemma的名词复数 )；窘境，困境

参考例句：

• They dealt with their dilemmas by mixing perhaps unintentionally an explosive brew. 他们――也许是无意地――把爆炸性的佐料混合在一起，以此来应付困难处境。 来自辞典例句
• Ten years later we encountered the same dilemmas in Vietnam. 十年后，我们又在越南遇到了同样进退两难的局面。 来自辞典例句

19 scrutinize   

n.详细检查，细读

参考例句：

• Her purpose was to scrutinize his features to see if he was an honest man.她的目的是通过仔细观察他的相貌以判断他是否诚实。
• She leaned forward to scrutinize their faces.她探身向前，端详他们的面容。

20 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

21 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

22 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。