Community Views

Editor's Notebook

American Jews
And The Peace Process

Learning A Lesson
About The Rebbe

DAVID GAD HARF SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

PHIL JACOBS ED TOR

In recent months, sters Mark Mellman and Stan-
there has been ley Greenberg. The survey con-
growing evidence tained the following findings:
of American Jew-
* 88 percent of Jews support
ish opposition to the peace process;
the Israeli govern-
* 78 percent support the agree-
ment's approach to ment on Palestinian autonomy
the Mideast peace in Gaza and Jericho (a level of
process. At the an- support unchanged from Sep-
nual Salute to Is- tember 1993);
rael parade in New York City,
* 84 percent have a favorable
some delegations recited anti-Ra- opinion of Prime Minister Rabin;
bin slogans and carried banners
* 65 percent agree with Mr.
denouncing the peace process as Rabin's willingness to trade ter-
they marched through Manhat- ritory on the Golan Heights in or-
tan.
der to achieve peace with Syria.
Ads have appeared in nation-
How can we reconcile these
al and Jewish publications, spon- starkly different portraits of
sored by individuals and groups American Jewry? Can we at-

of the dangers of an Israeli pull-
back from the West Bank or the
Golan Heights. This dogma has
been made obsolete by the events
of the past nine months, creating
a great deal of confusion among
American Jews.
Notwithstanding the evidence
of hope and support for the peace
process, there remains a deep
reservoir of mistrust of the Arab
parties to the conflict. The Mell-
man-Greenberg survey showed
that 85 percent of American Jews
describe their feelings about the
Gaza/Jericho agreement as "cau-
tious" and half say they are "fear-
ful" about the agreement. A large
majority believe that Syrian Pres-

that oppose facets of the Israeli
peace policy.
The specific criticisms focus on
four areas: negotiating self-rule
with the PLO; the status of the
Jewish settlements in the Jeri-
cho/Gaza area and elsewhere on
the West Bank; the possible with-
drawal from the Golan Heights;
and the future status of
Jerusalem.
Given the heightened media
attention to examples of dissen-
sion within the American Jewish
community, one might conclude
that a sizeable proportion of Jews
is at odds with the Israeli gov-
ernment. This should be a cause
of grave concern to all of us who
work for unity with our brethren
in Israel.
A different perspective on this
subject is provided in a survey
done in May by respected poll-

ident Assad is not committed to
peace.
At the same time that we sup-
port Prime Minister Rabin and
his government in their efforts to
bring peace to the region, we are
reserving judgment about
whether peace will truly be the
outcome. In fact, the survey found
that about three-quarters of us
expect increased terrorism in Is-
rael and the territories, and about
a third expect another Mideast
war.
I believe we owe it to Israel to
support the peace process. The
forces struggling to undermine it
will most surely be successful if
America and other nations with-
hold support for the agreement.
The Israeli democracy, so often
touted by American advocates,
will ensure that the people who
count most, the Israeli people,
will guide the direction of Israeli
policy. We need to do all we can
to show them that we are with
them. ❑

David Gad-Hart is executive
director of the Jewish
Community Council.

tribute the contrast solely to me-
dia hype, magnifying the number
and impact of the dissenters?
I believe the contrast is based
in part on the fact that the media
generally tend to focus on voic-
es of dissension and seem to take
particular interest in any per-
ceived schisms within the Jew-
ish community. But this is not an
explanation.
The fact is, most of us view the
peace process with a mixture of
hope and apprehension. We have
been asked to shift our thinking
in radical ways in a very short
time span about the PLO, the
concept of Palestinian self-rule,
and the need to retain the West
Bank and the Golan Heights.
Anyone who follows Mideast
developments (according to the
survey, nine out of 10 American
Jews) or has traveled to Israel
knows that successive Israeli gov-
ernments have opposed meet-
ings, let alone peace negotiations,
with the PLO. We were warned

Several years
ago I was doing
a story on the
then-newly pub-
lished Torah
Personality
cards. These are
trading cards,
much like base-
ball cards, with
the photo of a famous rabbi on
the front and some information
regarding his educational or
Torah learning "batting aver-
age" on the back.
I was standing with an 8-
year-old yeshiva boy. Shuffling
through the cards, I asked the
boy if he would trade one of
these cards, which happened to
be a Rabbi Schneerson, for a
Cal Ripken Jr.
The boy responded: "Who is
Cal Ripken Jr? Is he a baseball
player? You know, I don't know
from baseball. You want to talk
to Rabinowitz, he knows by
baseball."
With that, I knew I'd been set
straight on life's priorities by an
8-year-old. But why the sur-
prise? The classrooms and the
hallways were lined with pho-
tographs of men with serious
looks emerging from the shad-
ows of their beards and their
black hats. It would have been
comforting to have seen Hank
Greenberg staring down. But to
most of these boys, and to Or-
thodox Jews all over the world,
these Torah Personalities are
not only the exemplification of
Torah, they are sages.
The year before, in 1987,
while traveling between New
York City and Baltimore on the
New Jersey Turnpike, it didn't
take keen observation to notice
the number of men with black
hats and yarmulkes driving on
the road. There were simply
scores of them.

Torah learning
is there for
all Jews.

As we approached the out-
skirts of Baltimore City, we no-
ticed police cars at all of the
major exits, and finally when
we reached the area of
Pikesville, the heart of Balti-
more's Jewry, traffic was
backed up off certain exits.
The destination was Ner Is-
rael Rabbinical College. The
reason for the traffic: Rabbi Ja-
cob Ruderman, one of the mod-
ern Torah greats, had died.
Learning of Rabbi Ruder-
man's death was like getting hit
in the chest by a solid. fist. I sat
on my family room sofa and
learned firsthand what feeling

empty was all about. Rabbi Ru-
derman's photograph was in the
homes of so many Jews I knew,
including mine. His photo was
on the wall of yeshivot. I worked
with his daughter on projects for
the Jewish homeless and victims
of Jewish spousal abuse. His
granddaughter chaired a care
givers group in which my father
participated.
Rabbi Ruderman was a mod-
em-day gedolah, a rabbi im-
bued with strength, love and
learning. He was the kind of
man whose influence will last
for generations.
His death and the death of
other modern greats such as
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and
Rav Soloveitchik might mean
very little to modern-era Jews
who seem to worship their as-
similation more than God.
On Sunday, I felt that fist in
the chest once again. That was
after learning that the Lubav-
itch Rebbe had died. Certain-
ly my connection with the
Rebbe was minimal. I knew
him through my Lubavitch
friends and acquaintances.
While I didn't view him in quite
the same terms as they did,
there was still the utmost in re-
spect and admiration for the
man and the mission on which
he and his emissaries worked.
I ran into that mission in col-
lege when a mitzvah tank ap-
proached our college registration,
and I wanted to hide from the guy
with the lulav and etrog in his
hand. How little I knew then
what all of this would mean now.
Another great is gone, an-
other man from whom our
grandchildren will be learning.
There are precious few of these
people around, these guardians
of our faith. While to most of us
they seemed untouchable and
on a different level, maybe even
hard to relate to, the truth is
they wanted more of us to know
what they knew.
A Jew doesn't need to wear
a hat or grow a beard to grow.
Torah learning is there for all
Jews. All you need to do is to
ask for help, for a teacher.
What the Lubavitch Rebbe
did so remarkably well was give
us those teachers, whether we
lived in Crown Heights or
Wyoming or the Allenwood,
Pa., Federal Prison Camp or
Kiev or Jerusalem. No matter
what his critics said, the Rebbe
spread the word of Torah, per-
haps better than anyone ever
has or ever will.
In my office I now have sev-
eral trading cards — some are of
baseball players, some are Torah
Personality Cards of the Rebbe,
Rabbi Ruderman and others.
I know by them all now. ❑

