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POLISHER'S NOTEBOOK

MONICA

from page 31

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The Fate Of 'A Little Maidel'

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Bill Ginsburg
reluctantly maps
Monica strategy
against a friend
of
o the Jews.'

ERIC J. GREENBERG

STAFF Want

W

hen Bill Ginsburg was
changing the diapers of
his good friend's baby
girl Monica 23 years
ago, he never dreamed that they
might someday hold the fate of the
world in their hands.
But that appears to be the case,
hyperbole aside, as the 55-year-old
attorney Ginsburg' this week negoti-
ated for full immunity for that same
baby girl — Monica Lewinsky, now

24 — in return for her testimony to
special prosecutor Kenneth Starr
about her true relationship with
President Bill Clinton.
Some experts believe that
Lewinsky could bring down the
president depending on what she
reveals about what she and Clinton
did behind closed doors.
Despite the enormous gravity of
the matter, Ginsburg seemed tired

k

Continued on page 23

ALSO INSIDE: Clinton, Monica and Jewish law/ The Arab press has a field day.

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2/20
1998

34

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refugee. Her parents are divorced.
They attend a Conservative syna-
gogue whose name could be Shaarey
Zedek or Adat Shalom. The family
rabbi's name is David Wolpe. It
could be Irwin Groner or Efry Spec-
tre.
Monica Lewinsky, like our child
or that of our next-door neighbor,
was encouraged to succeed, to go as
far and as high as she could. Around
the dinner table, she probably
learned that it wasn't only what you
know, but who you know that
counts.
This focus on achievement and
accumulation of influence and
power, however, is where Monica and
our children may not be learning all
the lessons about life.
Marlene Adler Marks, senior
columnist for the Los Angeles Jewish
Journal and author of Nice Jewish
Girls: Growing Up In America, makes
this insightful assessment in a Los
Angeles Jewish Journal column enti-
tled "The Daughter:"
"
too want this scandal to
end. In fact, I am prepared to argue
that Bill Clinton's sex life, even with
a Jewish woman, is his own business.
But I'd also maintain that character
and lack of judgment of that Jewish
woman is our business.
"This character and judgment was
at least partially shaped in a Jewish
home. Jewish women tell me they
feel enraged, threatened, isolated and
shamed by the events ... But Jewish
women also understand the dynam-
ics of their families, the way Jewish
history and personal identity come
together through our children.
"'This isn't just Monica; this is my
daughter, too,' said a woman whose
own child is Monica's age. I know
what she means: In order to make
their way in the American world, we
train our girls to worship power, to

r

get their success vicariously, to vamp
for Daddy, and if not for him, then
for the powerful men who will take
away Daddy's discomfort and pain ...
"I feel a kinship with Lewinsky,
not in her strengths but in her weak-
nesses. She is every mother's night-
mare and every single Jewish moth-
er's tragic foreboding. Bill Clinton
said he had an 'emotional' relation-
ship with this child of a broken
home. To which this Jewish mother
says: God help us all."
As stories about Monica Lewinsky
and Bill Clinton continue to fill the
air waves and news columns of secu-
lar and Jewish publications, we must
look beyond bizarre or titillating
details and focus on the lessons we
can teach our own children about
power, influence and their excesses.
Afterall, tomorrow's Monica Lewin-
sky may be your child. ❑

LETTERS

PLANS

from page 32

would be a welcome addition.
Will relocating the health club
bring in new members or just be a
step sideways? Before eliminating the
courts, consider the number of mem-
bers that belong just because of the
courts. We are the loyal few that have
stuck it out. Don't drive us away.
Courts have multiple uses. Help our
membership grow by good manage-
ment and well-thought-out changes.
Let us all take a step forward on the
way to a running start in the millenni-
um. The JCC needs us if it is to grow
and prosper.
Lloyd I. Snider and 61 other JCC
squash and racquetball players

West Bloomfield