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Editor's Notebook
Lessons Learned
From The O.J. Trial
A Clearinghouse Idea
For High Holiday Seats
MARLENE ADLER MARKS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
PHIL JACOBS EDITOR
os Angeles —Right up until
the closing arguments, the
O.J. Simpson trial remained
a sidebar in Jewish commu-
nal consciousness. Many of us
identified with the Goldman fam-
ily, along with the Browns and
the Simpson children, far more
as victims than as Jews.
With relief, it appeared we
could get through the so-called
Thal of the Century with the nor-
mal fascination of the American
Everyman, without a special lens
focused from a specifically Jew-
ish point of view.
But it was not to be. If the
Simpson trial ultimately became
a vehicle for revealing the latent
divisions in society at large, it has
uniquely implanted itself in the
Jewish psyche as well.
Today, the hurts of our com-
munity loom large, and the cries
of "healing" we've heard since Oct.
3 ring hollow. Healing? Before I
begin to heal, I first have to know
what I'm healing from and who
L
is healing with me.
Why, other than for his guilty
conscience, is attorney Robert
Shapiro going around apologiz-
ing for his colleagues' winning de-
fense strategy of equating Los
Angeles Police Department de-
tective Mark Fuhrman to Adolf
Hitler?
And why did co-defense coun-
sel Barry Scheck seek out Do-
minick Dunne outside the
courtroom to tell the author he
could not bear to look at the Gold-
mans? "That family could be my
family," Mr. Scheck told him.
While Johnnie Cochran, to us
unforgivably allied with the Na-
tion of Islam, is cheered by the
Congressional Black Caucus and
others as a rising African-Amer-
ican political leader, Mr. Shapiro
conceded to the Los Angeles Jew-
ish Journal that the atmosphere
on Kol Nidre before his Barbara
Walters interview was "cool" and
Marlene Adler Marks is
managing editor of the Los
Angeles Jewish Journal.
Mr. Cochran would lead the jury
in "We Shall Overcome"?
Throughout the trial, many of
us regarded the presence of at-
torneys of our own (playing close
attention to the rise and fall of at-
torney Shapiro) as an insurance
policy, guaranteeing civility
against a full-bore attack on the
race issue. We were wrong. Jew-
ish lawyers once played key roles
1. Playing the "black/
in defining the acceptable limits
Jewish race card" works.
of legal attack on racism, thus im-
During closing arguments, Mr. plicitly protecting Jewish inter-
Cochran, fixing his fiery stare
ests. Now, Mr. Cochran speaks
straight at Fred Goldman, drew
for
himself
a line in the sand. Defendant vs.
victim, slavery vs. Holocaust,
black vs. Jew. At play in his ap- 3. The Holocaust trademark
peal was not only the ancient his- expires.
The question of "who owns the
tory of racial discrimination and
police abuse, but the ugly and Holocaust" has been raised sotto
tragic game of comparative victi- voce throughout the Jewish corn-
mology that has been lying at the munity for decades. Now we
heart of black-Jewish relations know the answer.
After 50 years, the Jewish
since the end of the civil-rights
trademark on Hitler and the
era.
For years, African-American Holocaust officially has passed
into the public domain. If once
we controlled the images of
horror, Hitler and the Holo-
caust are now generics, like
Kleenex, shorthand terms
used to describe everything
from the Gulf War's Saddam
Hussein to the Bosnian civil
war, to petty bureaucrats who
overreach their power, to the
casual bragging of an out-of-
control racist cop to a would-
be screenwriter.
We are at the end of a his-
toric line of thinking, and
some of it is of our own doing.
Emerging from the Holocaust,
the Jews pledged to eliminate
racist demagoguery root and
branch. Today almost every-
one (excepting, sadly, the
LAPD) is convinced they, too,
ideologues, including Louis Far- see Hitlers everywhere and the
rakhan, have not only been Find Solution under every bush.
But while the Fuhrman-
blaming Jews for the slave trade,
but insisting that "white Jews" Fuhrer analogy came to Mr.
stole their religion from them. Cochran by way of attorney
Other demagogues have voiced Charles Lindner, who himself
resentment at the attention paid comes from a family of survivors,
Jews with respect to the Holo- what hurt is that the analogy was
caust. As a result, Mr. Cochran used against a Jewish family.
was able to hook into latent re-
sentment evident even among 4. We are just another Anglo
the black middle class, toward group.
Jews who still claim sainthood
At Yom Kippur services all
status from the "good old days" over Los Angeles, Jews told each
of the civil-rights movement. other they were "stunned" by the
From a black perspective, it was verdicts, that some enormous
Jewish women who have bene- change of vision was called for.
fited most from the era of affir- And yet, I'm told, few rabbis dis-
mative action.
cussed it.
That's why, when Mr. Cochran
"However you feel about the
stirred his jury to his cause, he news, leave it at the door," one
was also stirring the coals of eth- told his shell-shocked congrega-
nic rivalry.
tion. These congregants yearned
for a special Jewish lens to view
2. Jews don't control
a major social upheaval in Amer-
ican life. How ironic that for our
justice.
Did we really think that just rabbis, kin facing our unpleasant
because there were four Jews (in- new realities, we're just another
cluding Alan "Chutzpah" Der- Anglo group after all. ❑
showitz) on the Dream Team that
others had been outright furious
when the Torah was specifically
brought to him at Stephen S.
Wise Temple during the ritual
procession on Rosh Hashanah.
Following last week's acquit-
tal in People v. O.J. Simpson,
there are lessons to be learned.
Here, are four of them:
Maybe it's too
soon after the
yom tovim to be
self-cast as the
"last angry Jew,"
but I heard a
real story the
other day that I
and hopefully
you will turn
into some sort of action.
No names here. The mes-
sage is what is important. No
fingers pointed anywhere, ex-
cept maybe at ourselves.
I ran into someone I know, a
staff professional for a Jewish
organization, just last Friday.
I asked her how her High
Holidays went, and I was a bit
unprepared for the response I
got.
This person called a rabbi
and asked The could get a tick-
et for her to services. The rab-
bi apparently said no, that she
would have to call board mem-
bers in charge of tickets to find
out if there were any available.
There were not. She ended up
not going to High Holiday ser-
vices.
Yes, she could have done a
great deal more to find a place
in our community for High Hol-
iday seats. At least, I think this
is true. But she said she was
embarrassed to start running
around telling people that she
didn't have the money for the
seat.
It gets worse. This person
converted to Judaism and is
trying her best to raise her
child as a Jew.
Now, I'm sure that the rab-
bi she knew was
sincere in his re-
sponse that he
wasn't really in
the ticket busi-
ness at his syn-
agogue. I'm sure
that the board
really was limit-
ed in the
amount of tick-
ets it had avail-
able.
But I know
that at the services I attended,
there were plenty of empty
seats, dozens of them. There
probably were a few empties
where you attended as well.
The key is, it's probably im-
possible for any one rabbi to
know what's available outside
of his own congregation.
Where do we send Jews
when they need help with food?
To Yad Ezra, which serves as
a kosher food bank for our com-
munity.
My suggestion: a High Hol-
iday ticket bank. A week or so
prior to Rosh Hashanah, syn-
agogues could "contribute"
their empty seats to a clear-
inghouse. Those who want tick-
ets, and who could show a
need, or even a desire to go to
shul, would call a phone num-
ber and be matched with seats.
Look, we could sit here and
come up with rules for quali-
fications, because undoubted-
ly there will be some rich guy
who goes for a freebie. If that's
the risk, but an overwhelming
majority of people who would
otherwise stay at home got an
opportunity, think of the dif-
ference it might make.
We in Detroit are so proud
of the achievements we've
made as a community in terms
of Jewish education, charity
and support of Israel and our
synagogues. If no one steps for-
ward, however, to guarantee at
least an opportunity for all of
us to observe the holidays in
our synagogues, then we aren't
so great after all.
I never, ever want to hear
again that a mother and her
child were turned down for
High Holiday tickets without
being given any suggestions or
alternatives. I am sure that if
it's happened once, it has hap-
pened several times. It's a sin
that it occurred even once.
We'll be the first ones beat-
ing our breasts and praying in
High Holiday services in the
future about why our younger
generations aren't as interest-
ed in synagogue. We'll wonder
why so many young Jews are
vulnerable to cults and Chris-
tian missionary groups.
It's difficult enough for peo-
ple to want to work hard over
the High Holidays to get their
act straight with God. If we
don't give them the opportuni-
ty because they can't afford it,
then we're the ones who are
poorer for it.
If you'd like to join me in
putting this "bank" together,
give me a call. It's not such a
bureaucracy here. It's 354-
6060, Ext. 258.
It's difficult enough to get
some people to come back to
shul. If they want to come, we
can't turn them away — it
could be their ticket out of Ju-
daism. We've blown it big time
if that's the result.
❑