5755

wring my trips to the su-
permarket, I occasional]:
read the tabloids. My fa
..vori-te headline. `Preac.her
Explodes In The Pulpit.' 7
—Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, Pitg
ident-elect of the Union of
Anierican Ilet)rew Congrega-
tions, speaking to a group of
Jewish jour,,.
nalist4
(6130)

I
I get up
every day and
say, 'What
can I do today
that's good?'
And I do
something good and I feel
better."
--- Singer-actress Bette Mi-
dler, on losing friends and
colleagues
to AIDS.
(814)

"

The Holocaust Museum's Future

U.S. Holocaust
Memorial
Museum:
Using the past
to forge identity
into the future.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Mu-
seum struggled with its identity,
looking to become more than a mon-
ument to the past. In October, it
launched an exhibit about ethnic
cleansing in Bosnia. Serbian-Amer-
ican groups expressed no small bit
of anger. The goal, said spokesper-
sons for the museum, was to be more

than a chronicle of past tragedies tar-
geting ethnic and minority groups.
The present, too, had a role in the
museum's mission.
The museum also struggled with
its future direction, after an inau-
gural year of stunning success greet-
ed by many more visitors than
initially expected. A change in di-

rectorship surprised some, particu-
larly when scholar and Projects Di-
rector Michael Berenbaum was not
selected. After several candidates
seemed close to taking the job — one
actually being offered it — Walter
Reich took the top spot. The Wash-
ington psychiatrist has authored sev-
eral works about the Holocaust.

Run Arlen, Run

For one Jewish man, the rise of the Republican
right was too much. And, the veteran U.S. senator
felt that the way to stem the tide was to change his
address — to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. With that in
mind, Sen. Arlen Specter launched his long-shot GOP
presidential bid this
past year, perhaps
most serious
White House bid yet
by a Jew.
The son of a
Russian-Jewish im-
migrant and openly
supportive of Israel
and Soviet Jewry,
the 65-year-old
politician was out to
recapture his GOP
from a "lunatic
fringe." His cam-
paign's main issues
have been the sepa-
ration of religion
and state, being pro-choice on abortion and
Sen. Arlen
bringing his party's focus back to one of fis-
Specter
cal conservatism and social libertarianism.
His role as a centrist, however, was damaged
when the more well-known Gov. Pete Wil-
son of California threw his hat into the
crowded GOP ring.

Blitzing Washington

American Jews opposed to
Israel's peace process de-
scended in droves on the of-
fices of the new Republican
rulers in Washington. They
advocated cutting U.S. aid to
the Palestinian Authority —
critical for Yasser Arafat's
fledgling entity. They lobbied
to move the U.S. Embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by
next year's end, applauding
ties to that move with State
Department funding. They
rallied against placing U.S.
troops as part of a Golan
Heights peace monitoring
mission, a proposal that hasn't
even been made.
The Jewish groups also
wrangled with the congres-

sional debate over limiting ac-
tivities in America of terrorist
groups and their sympathiz-
ers. In fact, Rep. Charles E.
Schumer (D-N.Y.) pressed the
Justice Department to enforce
a new law that enables the
federal government to prose-
cute those raising money here
for terrorist groups.
Many veteran Jewish com-
munity activists noted that
those behind the actions had
plunged the quality of debate
in the Jewish world into the
sewer. This summer the Con-
ference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organiza-
tions put forth a plea that
asked Jewish leaders to be
more civil with one another.

inAt
1111e, the settlers, have be-
come the blacks of Martin
Luther King."
—Efrat's Rabbi Shlomo
Riskin, on practicing civil
disobedience to protest
Israeli government policies
in the West Bank.
(8111)

D

on't Evacuate The Set-
tlers -- Shoot Them In The
Head."
Bumper sticker distrib-
uted by an Israeli left-wing
group called the "Anarchistic
Brigade of the
Upper Galilee."
(8/18)

"T

his causes people to
leave the homeland and
mixed marriages. It's worse
than Hitler."
--Yosef Ben Moshe, an Is-
raeli kosher meat inspector of
restaurants, on Jerusalem's
new kosher McDonald's.
(8125)

ii

McDonald's is opening its
first kosher restaurant in Is-
rael. It'll be the first McDon-
ald's to have the new
Never-Happy Meal."
—Actor-comedian
Gary Shandling, ruminating
on HBO's "Larry
Sanders Show."
(9122)