NOTEBOOK 1
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AIDS A Jewish Issue?
S.F. Rabbi Says Yes
GARY ROSENBLATT
Editor
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San Francisco —
Andy Rose is one
of the nation's
only full-time
social workers in
the Jewish com-
munity dealing
exclusively with
the AIDS issue. And he is a
very busy man.
A licensed clinical social
worker at the Jewish Family
Services in San Francisco,
Rose, 35, coordinates an AIDS
project there and says he has
met with more than a hun-
dred Jews with the disease in
the city, mostly gay men be-
tween the ages of 20 and 55.
He not only counsels them,
but works with their visiting
parents, many of whom learn
of their son's homosexuality
at the same time they learn
of his illness. Rose also is in-
volved in providing meals for
those who are ill, finding tem-
porary housing for parents
who come to take care of their
sons, lobbying for legislation
supportive of gay rights, and
advocating AIDS education.
"We provide a link to the
community, educating people
and trying to mobilize them,"
he said.
It is often an uphill battle
since, according to Rabbi
Robert Kirschner of San
Francisco's largest Reform
congregation, many Jews
refuse to recognize the
magnitude of the problem
and how close to home it is
hitting. "I am struck by the
subterranean aspects of this
illness in the Jewish com-
munity," said Rabbi
Kirschner, who appeared on a
panel, with Rose, dealing
with AIDS and the Jewish
community at the recent an-
nual conference of the
American Jewish Press
Association.
"AIDS is a Jewish issue
because Jews have it," said
Rabbi Kirschner, who added
that many members of his
congregation seek to avoid
the confronting the crisis
because of the stigma at-
tached to the illness. "I tell
them that in Judaism, the
highest obligation is to help
another person in pain, to
alleviate suffering wherever
it is found."
David Glassberg is a young
man in pain. A native of
Teaneck, N.J., he had AIDS
for several years. He spoke of
his personal struggle and the
impact it has had on his im-
mediate family. When he told
his parents two and a half
years ago that he was gay,
their response was "loving
and very supportive, and they
were only upset that I'd kept
it to myself all these years
and not told them." His
mother was devastated at the
news of Glassberg's illness,
and his father translated his
emotions into lobbying
energetically in Congress for
medical funding to fight the
disease. "But my brother, who
is six years older, is not sup-
portive," said Glassberg in a
quiet voice. 'He can't deal
with the issue of my dying."
Rabbi Yoel Kahn of Sha'ar
Zahav, one of San Francisco's
two gay-oriented synagogues,
said that every one of his
members has been touched by
the AIDS crisis. Fourteen
members have died and at
least that many have been
diagnosed with the disease,
he said. The congregation has
a Bikur Cholim committee to
visit the sick and has chang-
ed the prayer recited on
behalf of one who is ill in an
effort to be more realistic.
"Rather than pray for a com-
plete and speedy recovery, we
pray that we might all know
the healing of the body and
the mind," the rabbi said.
"It is important to realize
that AIDS has touched people
in all of your communities,
not just here," Rabbi Kahn
told his audience. "Like
cancer was a generation ago,
Can one separate
one's feelings
about
homosexuality and
AIDS?
AIDS today is the unspoken
illness, but it's out there."
Traditional Jewish values
can shape our response, said
the rabbi, who noted that
p'kuach nefesh, the concept of
saving a life, is a Jewish im-
perative. "Our slogan is
Silence Equals Death and Ac-
tion Equals Life," Rabbi Kahn
said, asserting that the more
educated and aware the com-
munity is about AIDS, the
more hope there is in halting
the epidemic.
"This issue will not go
away," Rabbi Kirschner warn-
ed. "It is going to magnify
and get worse."
Those words, and the asser-
tion that one's response to the
AIDS crisis has much to do
with one's feelings about
homosexuality, echoed in my
Continued on Page 22