AIDS Provides Every Jew With Demanding Agenda

By RABBI ARNIE SLEUTELBERG

AIDS is an equal opportunity
virus. It does not discriminate. Jews
and non-Jews, blacks and whites,
adults and children, heterosexuals
and homosexuals are all susceptible
to the AIDS virus.
The good news is that the AIDS
virus is hard to get. It is not
airborne; it cannot be contacted
through touch. You can't get the
AIDS virus by hugging or kissing.
The only ways to contract the virus
is through unprotected sex in which
there is a direct exchange of body
fluids, by sharing needles through
I.V. drug use or through a
transfusion of contaminated blood.
The highest risk group
presently are teen-agers and young
adults. Young people typically have
the feeling of invincibility. The young
never think that it can happen to
them or to someone in their family
or a close friend. But it does and it
has. The virus has an incubation
period of as much as five to ten
years. One can be a carrier without
knowing it, without any symptoms,
and yet pass on the virus to
countless others. It is critically
important in our world of AIDs to
take every precaution necessary to
prevent its spread.
Education is the key to
combating AIDS. Parents must
speak knowledgeably and honestly
with their children. The Michigan
Jewish AIDS Coalition (MJAC) is
preparing a curriculum which will
help parents talk with their kids
about this dreadful disease.
When someone does contract
AIDS it makes no difference how
they got it. But let us be very clear.

If Mary Fisher and Magic Johnson
can contract the AIDS virus, then
anyone can contract the AIDS virus.
AIDS is a Jewish heterosexual
problem of potentially epidemic
proportions.
We Jews have specific religious
imperatives which require of us
certain actions. One of those is
bikur cholim, visiting the sick. Bikur
cholim demonstrates to patients that
illness has not cut them off from the
world. For the person with AIDS,
family members, friends and the
caring visitor; bikur cholim is an
extension of Judaism, a declaration
of a Jew's privilege to imitate the
image of God.
Chesed v'Emet, compassion
and truth, has special significance
in relation to the death of a person
with AIDS. Chesed v'Emet reflects
the concern in Judaism that Jews
respond to an individual's death
with loving kindness and integrity.
Death resulting from AIDS often
promotes denial, misrepresentation
and cruelty.
The mitzvah of Chesed v'Emet
requires that we reject even the
slightest expression of prejudice or
naive judgment regarding AIDS or
the person who has died of AIDS.
Kol Israel Aravim Ze Baze — each
Jew is responsible for every other
Jew and that mitzvah should
condition our concerns for Jews in
particular and all humanity in
general.
Pikuach nefesh, saving a life, is
an ultimate Jewish value. This
Hebrew concept asserts that any
behavior devoted to saving a life is
unparalleled. Because a Jew must
strive to save life, praise life, cherish
life and nurture life, threats to life

Jewish Educators Plan AIDS Curriculum

MJAC (Michigan Jewish AIDS
Coalition), Jewish Experiences
For Families and the Jewish
Educators Council of Metropolitan
Detroit are co-sponsoring an
AIDS curriculum.
Using Cornell University's
"How To Talk To Kids About
AIDS" program as a base, and
incorporating Jewish text and
tradition, the co-sponsors are
developing a curriculum for use
in synagogues and temples to
teach Jewish parents how to talk
with their sons and daughters
about AIDS.
The program will provide
basic AIDS information to
increase the participants'
knowledge about AIDS and HIV
transmission. It will address some
of the issues and concerns adults

and young people face in relation
to sexuality and talking with one
another.
The program will address
values and how parents may
choose to talk with their young
people about them. The role of
the program is to provide
resources in these sensitive
areas. It is the hope of the co-
sponsors that adult participants
will leave the program better able
to work at developing responses
to these issues with and for the
young people in their lives.
Once completed, the Jewish
AIDS program will, using
interactive exercises, videos and
demonstrations, consist of three
sessions with adults and one
session with teens.

such as the AIDS epidemic should
be treated as an enemy and the
fight to control AIDS as a major
battle.

Tikkun Olam, repairing an
imperfect world, implies the AIDS
epidemic provides every Jew with a
demanding agenda:
• Financial support for medical
research.
• Initiation of commitment to
and participation in AIDS education
programs for young people and
adults.
• Advocating the legal,
economic, occupational and social
rights of persons with AIDS and
those diagnosed as carrying the
AIDS virus.
• Organizing a wide range of
programs for one's synagogue and
religious school.
When the Names Project AIDS
Quilt hung at the Jewish Community

Center here in Detroit, a memorial
service was held. One of the
prayers read: "First the virus came
after Africans, and I was not an
African, so I did nothing. Then the
virus came after hemophiliacs, and I
was not a hemophiliac, so I did
nothing. Then the virus came after
gay men, and I was not a gay man,
so I did nothing. Then the virus
came after Haitians, and I was not a
Haitian, so I did nothing. Then the
virus came after I.V. drug users and
their babies, and I was not an I.V.
drug user or their baby, so I did
nothing. Then the virus came after
me, my brothers and sisters, my
children, and there was no one left
to help."
Let us choose life by fighting
AIDS before there is no one left to
help.

Rabbi Sleute/berg is spiritual leader
of Congregation Shir Tikvah, Troy.

Famous Facts

a

Was it possible for a Confederate soldier
in the Civil War to keep kosher?

The Confederate army did
not provide a kosher food service
under rabbinic supervision;
however, some soldiers did
manage. Private Isaac Gleitzman,
who served in the cavalry under
General Nathan Bedford Forrest,
later claimed proudly that he had

eaten no non-kosher food during
his war service. His family still
has his two mess kits, one for
meat and one for milk. He also
won a Confederate Cross of
Honor.

Compiled by Dr. Matthew and
Thomas Schwartz.

