The first lady, surrounded by
Secret Service agents, takes
time to greet delegates and
guests at NCJW's 40th
national convention.
A Call For
Humanity
Children, motherhood,
grandmotherhood, sex
and Jewish living: Notes
from a day at National
Council of Jewish
Women's 40th national
convention.
JULIE EDGAR STAFF WRITER
irst lady Hillary Clinton left a
great impression in Detroit last
Saturday at the annual conven-
tion of the National CO-uheil of
Jewish Women. She spoke con-
fidently and lucidly — without
once consulting the single-spaced notes
on her podium, an observer noted — and
she rubbed elbows with a crowd of hun-
dreds.
Poise and fine memory aside, Mrs. Clin-
ton also managed to avoid stumping for
the Democratic Party or plugging her
book, It Takes a Village, although she
made reference in her speech to the vil-
lage as a force that connects and protects
us.
That she talked specifically about
NCJVV's programs, most geared to the ed-
ucation and welfare of women and chil-
dren, thrilled the crowd.
"In our country, there are two stark
views," the first lady said. "One wants us
Dr. Miriam Mar'i from Israel,
Joanie Nunn of Virginia and Renee
Kaminsky of Illinois focus their-
attention on Hillary Clinton's
speech.
to basically make it on our own" by with-
drawing medical, social and educational
programs. `This view holds us as a crowd,
not a village.
"You remind me we are part of a vil-
lage. We know none of us can work with-
out the other," she intoned.
And; naturally, she noted the terror-
ist bombings in Israel, saying that chil-
dren who witness such horrors are
perhaps the heaviest casualties of at-
tack. She recently met with Palestinian
and Israeli youths who "understood the
need to sit down."
"These young people are showing great
faith in themselves to stand up for peace,"
she said.
The speech energized the 800 or so lun-
cheon guests who made their way up to
the dais to meet the first lady and stood
talking among themselves.
Dignified in a crisp royal-blue suit with
first lady-ish brass buttons, Mrs. Clinton
spent a half-hour shaking hands, cooing
over an infant and hugging well-wishers,
one of whom walked away wiping tears
from her eyes.
Terran Leemis later explained that
Hillary had made her mother, Florence
Hermelin, one of the happiest women
alive in the last year of her life. Ms. Her-
melin died last November, a year after
HUMANITY page 8