RISHER'S NOTEBOOK

The Tale Of Monica Lewinsky
Strikes Close To Home For Us

ARTHUR M. HORWITZ
Publisher

What is it about
Monica Lewins
that captivates us?
By now, we are
familiar with her
ascension from
the obscurity of a
White House
internship to the
focus of an inves-
tigation into the behavior of the Presi:-
dent of the United States. At stake?
Issues of war and peace in the Middle
East and the ability of Bill Clinton to
lead the most powerful nation on
Earth, to name a couple.
) Yes, Monica Lewinsky is Jewish.
And typically, that brings distinct reac-
tions from the Jewish community.
One group of handwringers declares
her involvement a shande (embarrass-
ment) because it gives every anti-
Semite something upon which to
blame all Jews. Another group claims
no one cares about her religion and we
have achieved the American dream
assimilation into the mainstream of
society.
A smaller group hails her as our
people's Queen Esther for diverting
Clinton's attention away from pressur-
ing Israel into making additional corn-
promises with the Palestinian Authori-
ty.
A review of recent articles in the
Jewish press reinforces this fascination
with Lewinsky and her Jewishness —

departments did not want to embar-
rass the Arab world by drawing
attention to Iraq's use of poison gas
to murder tens of thousands of Irani-
ans and some 5,000 of Iraq's Kurdish
citizens; nor of Syria's murder of
20,000 of its own people in the city
of Hama.
One would expect that if Wash-
ington should learn of a possible gas
attack on any people, it would warn
the intended victims as well as make
it unmistakably clear the very strong
opposition to such criminal violation
/ of international law.
Jonathan Pollard is a hero who did
the decent thing. Pollard, in jail, says
the United States does not mean
Israel and the Jewish people well.
Hymie Cutler
Director, Michigan Committee
for a Safe Israel

news, her answer significantly influ-
based American Jewish World's front-
and uncertainty on how to cover the
ences their coverage.
page headline, "Monica Lewins ky's
"story of the decade."
After posing several questions, her
family belongs to L.A. shul," is quite
In the Chicago Jewish News, a big
tame. (For the record, The Jewish News answer was, "This story, however
front-page photo of a smiling Monica
reported, is not going to go away.
ran a story by Los Angeles-based jour-
Lewinsky is accompanied by the head-
And we Jews, just like the rest of the
nalist Tom Tugend on page 3 of its
line "Nice Jewish Girl" and a subhead
country — and the world — are
Jan. 30 issue entitled: "Monica Lewin-
asks, "How Big A Shandah?" The
going to continue to follow it with a
sky:
A
Nice
Jewish
Connecticut
Jewish
front page of the
mixture of utter amazement, perverse
Girl?")
Ledger
fascination and pro-
0(.4 ■
shows a
h. • .
Casts ,;
found dismay.
torn pho-
oissmsatig.
imA rr`
Connecticu t
. i-IX(t.
Stay tuned for
tograph of
omelowsmotionesean
.
let
;■ •«202i, -**
• '
,, ft
kft Alssi ...a:4,T • " T a r
how your Jewish
Clinton
Ai.
1,01
An 1ndepersdens Weekly Jewish Newvzixt Siricz 1929
paper
plays the
and
story."
So much
ved by the b
Netanyahu
aa3Vi
Was
Situ
for
a
definitive
mmonvi
te.ttie
White
tiouse,
with Moni-
Hdaoriblivios su
111W.
answer.
but the nesident had other issues on WS
ca Lewin-
Our mixture of
sky's smiling
amazement, fascina-
face
tion and dismay is
between
tied into what I
them under
believe really attracts
this headline:
us
to the Monica
"Was Bibi
Lewinsky
story. Quite
saved by the
simply, she could be
belle?"
wp1 'ado ,
our child or that of
The New
A k inch Odi
Mak:1104?
our next-door neigh-
York Jewish
bor.
Week's cover-
There is nothing
Lisa
age, which
exceptional
or spectac-
Hostein
included halachic interpretations of
ular
about
Monica.
She
of
the
oral sex and adultery, had a page-one
How RIG A SHANDAH?
comes
from
an
upper
Jewish
headline that read: "The fate of a 'lit-
• T HOUGHTS OF CHICAGO JEWS
middle-class Jewish
Tele-
tle maidel'." The Los Angeles Jewish
* LIFE AS A JEWISH WHITE HOUSE
INTERN
family,
not too different
THE REACTIONS IN
graphic
Heritage's cover featured an illustration
ISRAEL
from what we would
Agency
of King David repenting for his affair
find in Birmingham or
attempted, in a column carried by a
with Bathsheba next to the headline:
Bloomfield
Hills.
Her father is a
number of newspapers, to answer the
"King David's lesson for Bill Clinton"
physician,
the
child
of a German
question,
"Is
this
Jewish
news?"
Since
and the subhead "A Jewish look at
most
Jewish
newspapers
rely
on
the
presidential scandals."
MONICA on page 34
JTA for national and international
By comparison, the Minneapolis-

01. 1 ,.13

.

Israel Pluralism,
But Not Here?

The article "Classroom Distinctions"
(Feb. 6) causes me to wonder if
these are the same Conservative
Jews who join with the Reform
movement to demand the right
to have their rabbis perform wed-
dings, conversions, funerals and all
the rights of ordained rabbis in
Israel.
Yet, here they use the same inter-
pretation of the law to deny the
Reform Jews to convert unless done
as.they wish, thus treating them with
the same disdain they object to in
Israel.
It causes one to wonder.
Murray Sedley
Farmington Hills

Evangelists
And Jews

If I'm not mistaken, Jerry Falwell was
among the evangelists to say that God
can't hear the prayers of Jews.
I'm wondering if Prime Minister
Netanyahu visited the reverend to ask
him to pray in his stead.
Edna Garte
Bloomfield Hills

Need To Avoid
Public Shaming

The recently recurring and seemingly
endless spectacle of President Clinton
being asked the most embarrassing
questions regarding the latest White
House sex scandal, in what was sup-
posed to be a dignified photo-op or

press confer-
ence with a
foreign dig-
nitary such
as Israeli
Prime Min-
ister
Binyamin
Netanyahu
or British
Prime Min-
ister Tony
Blair, brings President Clinton:
Sage advice.
to mind an
incident which
occurred in our family years ago.
Our eldest son, eager to right every
wrong in the world, wrote a strongly
worded letter of protest in his high
school newspaper — in a most
renowned Jewish educational institu-
tion in New York — demanding the

2/20
1998

31