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This OnE Was At LEast
Di
ErsEnt
PHIL JACOBS EDITOR
his was a different sort of Council of Jewish
Federations' General Assembly.
* There was drama. Indeed, a bomb
scare forced the 3,000 delegates from their
seats into a cool, damp Seattle night.
There were new voices. Women, who had been
for years the second citizens of this big event, took over
front and center in terms of programming and speak-
ers.
* There was the installation of a new president. CJF
will be led to the year 2000 by Detroit's community
leader Dr. Conrad Giles. Dr. Giles is known in Detroit
as the person who led a commission to revamp the way
Jewish education is delivered and implemented.
* Israel's prime minister showed up. Well, sort of.
Binyamin Netanyahu, who was supposed to address
the event in person, stayed in Israel to take care of mat-
ters pertaining to Hebron. He did talk to the meeting
via teleconference. Outside the Washington State Con-
ference Center, barricades and mounted police officers
kept screaming Peace Now and Arab protesters on one
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vided Jerusalem on the other. The more "right-wing'
protesters also had an unexpected group of guests: the
local "messianic" Jewish congregation showed up on
their side.
* A former prime minister did show up, really. Shi-
mon Peres, who negotiated the peace with the Pales-
tinians, received a standing ovation from the delegates.
There were no real angry protests going on outside.
* Most important, a major issue was tackled. Plu-
ralism — "Who Is a Jew?" — was discussed openly. In
a resolution approved overwhelmingly by the CJ F's
delegates, the organization called on the Israeli gov-
ernment not to change any aspect of the Law of Re-
turn, which guarantees Israeli citizenship to any Jewish
immigrant. The council called the return law "one of
the pillars of Jewish identification with the State of Is-
rael in each and every Jewish community around the
world."
* People drank coffee, tons of the stuff. We learned
a new language, "latte, with a double shot."
* It rained. And rained. And poured.
La Shana Haba Indianapolis.