OPINION

Honors And Honesty

L_LJ1=111'S

w

Whom we choose to honor says
something about us.

LEONARD FEIN

Special to The Jewish News

A

t the biennial conven-
tion of • the Union of
American Hebrew
Congregations, one even-
ing's program was devoted
to a free-wheeling discussion
of Jewish ethical dilemmas.
The program was moderated
by Fred Friendly, and
followed the format of his
much-praised panel discus-
sions on public television:
Friendly poses a hypo-
thetical, and a dozen
panelists have at it, prodded
along the way by the
moderator.
One of the dilemmas plac-
ed before the panel at the
UAHC convention dealt
with the circumstances
under which our community
chooses to honor people.
Take, for example, the case
of a congregation in des-
perate need of a million
dollars in order to expand its
school: After considerable

Young Jews in
search of a
community that
stands for
something will
know that they
should look
elsewhere.

effort, it succeeds in raising
only $200,000, but just as
the rabbi is about to give up
on the expansion, a wealthy
member offers a donation of
$800,000, asking in return
only that the school be nam-
ed after him.
But what if the prospective
donor has just been indicted
for insider trading? And
what if he asks that the
school be named not after
him but after his mother?
What if the board disagrees
with the rabbi? And what if
and what if, a dozen diff-
erent variations on the
theme, a theme familiar to
all of us as we observe and/or
participate in Jewish com-
munal life.
Today it's an inside trader;
tomorrow it's a slumlord; the
next day Donald Trump, and
the one after that an Alfonse
D'Amato, a Richard Nixon, I
suppose even an Ariel Sha-
ron.

Leonard Fein is a writer and
lecturer, based in Boston.

Honors and honesty:
Whom we choose to honor
says something about us. By
now, that's hard to re-
member, since we have
grown so accustomed to
winking our way through
the dinners and the com-
mencements as praise is
heaped upon the most
unlikely people.
But we know the routine:
If his check is large enough,
or if his friends will buy
enough tables, we'll do it.
The ends justify the bends
and the twists, and maybe
we'll luck out; no one will
notice.
So much for the
background. The Union of
American Hebrew Con-
gregations (UAHC) is the
congregational arm of
Reform Judaism; the Reform
rabbinic seminary, with
campuses in Cincinnati, Los
Angeles, New York, and
Jerusalem, is the Hebrew
Union College. And this
week, the Hebrew Union
College in Los Angeles con-
fers an honorary doctorate
on Yitzhak Shamir.
It's a shame that wasn't
known in time to raise the
question at the forum. It
would have made for a
rather interesting discus-
sion. And while I can't
reliably say where each of
the panelists would have
come down, I do not think I
would have been alone — I
having been one of the
panelists — in opposing the
award.
What? Oppose an honorary
doctorate to the Prime Min-
ister of Israel, the very same
man who didn't mess up in
Madrid just last week? The
man who may yet make
peace happen between Israel
and its neighbors?
If Mr. Shamir does end up
as a peacemaker, he'll de-
serve every honor we can
heap on him. But that's
then, and this is now. Now
means a Shamir with a
bitter record of seven lean
years of stubborn in-
competence domestically
and of moral and political
obtuseness internationally. I
pray that record will be
rendered irrelevant in the
months ahead, but that's the
record we have to go on so
far. Still, Boston University,
headed by erstwhile guber-
natorial candidate John
Silber, will be giving Mr.
Shamir a degree, just as the
Kennedy School of Harvard

C1919 NTERNADONAL COPYRIGHT BY CARTOOEEWS NC. N.Y.

Mr. Shamir: Deserving of our praise?

University gave awards to
Ed Meese and John J. Mc-
Cloy, just as the Wiesenthal
Center honored Arnold
Schwartzenegger. Everyone
plays the hypocritical game.
What's the big deal?
The big deal is that this is
the Hebrew Union College of
the Reform movement,
whose congregational arm,
the UAHC, has, along with
its rabbinic arm, passed
resolution after resolution
urging more moderate poli-
cies upon Israel.
The big deal is that large
numbers — I'd guess a
substantial majority — of
RUC's alumni, faculty, and
students oppose the policies
Mr. Shamir has pursued,
and are offended that their

institution, a school for the
training of rabbis, is joining
the hypocritical tradition.
The bigger deal still is that
such an honor from HUC is
inherently a political state-
ment in a way that an honor
from Boston University is
not. Returning to Israel, Mr.
Shamir will be entitled to
make light of reports that
American Jewry is divided
on his policies. If even the
Reform movement chooses to
honor him, then how serious
can the reported divisions
be?
And why should anyone
pay any attention at all to
the resolutions passed by the
UAHC or the expressions of
concern voiced by Reform
rabbis? The next time a

delegation of Jewish leaders
descends upon Jerusalem to
whisper to the prime min-
ister and his colleagues that
Israel is losing support in
the United States, and even
among American Jews, Mr.
Shamir will simply hit them
over the head with his
elegant diploma, and laugh.
And the biggest deal of all
is that young Jews in search
of a community that stands
for something, that has prin-
ciples that are more than
pious expressions, that actu-
ally guide its behavior, will
know that they should look
elsewhere.
The folks at HUC must
know all this. One wonders
what prompted them to
disregard it. ❑

Where's The Outcry
Against Euthanasia?

RON SEIGEL

Special to The Jewish News

T

he great Jewish writer
Elie Wiesel once sug-
gested that those who
protected the Jews from the
Nazis during World War II
held a "certain idea" about
humanity — an awareness
that every person is
important.
Scholars suggest that
Hitler set the psychological
climate for the Holocaust by

Mr. Siegel works out of
Highland Park for
handicapper rights.

conditioning people to reject
this "idea" of the worth of all
people.
The Nazis started their
mass destruction through a
euthanasia policy directed
against those with handicaps.
Once it became respectable to
kill people because of physical
or mental handicaps, they
note, there was much less
emotional resistance to kill-
ing races for an imagined "in-
feriority."
In the U.S. today, there are
attempts to rob people with
handicaps of their lives, their
legal rights, and their status
as full human beings. The

most shocking thing about
this is there is so little shock,
even among those who should
be most sensitive to the in-
plications of the Holocaust.
It has been ruled legal in
many states to commit
"passive euthanasia," with-
drawal of medical treatment
necessary for life and even
elimination of feeding tubes.
While the rationale for such
decisions was a patient's
"right to die," nothing com-
pels authorities to demand
proof of a patient's desire to
die. (Last year, the Supreme
Court ran into severe

Continued on Page 10

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

7

