Editorials

IN FOCUS

Heeding The Code

' j ewish communal groups, just like sec-
ular non-profits, typically adopt a code
of conduct for good reason — so sup-
potters don't take undue advantage of
a group's good name.
Basic as it is, the notion of such a code drew
the spotlight last week when a housing corn-
mittee co-chair for the 1998 JCC Maccabi
Games in Detroit acknowledged she had used
the host family list to solicit business by mail
for her work as a real estate agent.
Her mailing, for which the agent promptly
apologized when The Jewish News asked about
it, underscores the necessity of a code of con-
duct and why it must be enforced uniformly,
consistently and vigorously.
No one, from the head of a group on down,
should be immune from obeying the letter, as
well as the spirit, of such a code. To allow
favoritism is to weaken the code and, in turn,
respect for it. The best code is one that's based
on common sense, administered fairly and
likely to be heeded.
Exceptions arise in cases with no clear-cut
violations.

But in the Detroit case, the real estate agent
is on the Jewish Community Center board and
clearly violated its Code of Ethics, which the
Center president confirmed.
The code requires all board members to
"avoid use of the JCC's resources for personal
gain." It requires them to protect all JCC
information deemed confidential, privileged or
not publicly available. It requires any doubt to
be resolved in favor of confidentiality.
Unquestionably, the agent intruded on the
Maccabi host family list. Insofar as she came
across as penitent and contrite in her public
apology for skirting the JCC board's Code of
Ethics, it's not our intention to suggest
whether there should be further penalty
beyond the glare of public judgment.
But let there be no mistake:
No matter how valuable our communal ser-
vice is, none of us has any business — whether
intentional or not — creating an environment
that can tarnish a communal service group by
putting ourselves in a position to benefit finan-
cially through use or disclosure of essentially
private information. ❑

Crimes And Punishment

paints her as a confused young woman from a
privileged background — a Jewish background,
we can't help but note — whose ideas of
romance and love were bereft of either the values
of her religious tradition or common sense.
The videos and the thousands of pages of
documents show the Starr team for what it was
— a crew of ideologues who had already wasted
$35 million or so on fruitless investigations and
happened to stumble on not a high crime or
misdemeanor, but a sordid little affair that
wouldn't have interested-anyone if it hadn't hap-
pened in the Oval Office.
In this Jewish season of repentance, we hope
Clinton's words of contrition are genuine. Only
time and irreproachable behavior, and a rededi-
cation to genuine leadership in these troubling
times, can heal the wounds he has inflicted on
the nation.
Congress ought to strike a deal now to call an
end to this piercingly sad story with no heroes.
Let it issue a reprimand, to underline the nation-
al consensus that what the President did was
wrong. On the evidence it has, it can't do more
than that, and it need not anyway.
What Bill Clinton so mysteriously did with
ulated.
Monica Lewinsky, and what he said about it
The picture that emerges from Monica
later, has disgraced him. It has wounded his
Lewinsky's testimony is of a man who seems
wife and daughter and the friends he con-
more like a nervous high-school kid who thinks
temptibly sent out to lie for him. And it has
he ought to want something, but knows at a
diminished the office of president of the Unit-
deeper level that he's not ready, that it really
ed States.
would be "inappropriate."
The man from Hope will go to his grave
Lewinsky comes across in the Starr report as a
knowing that. That's punishment enough. ❑
pathetic, immature adolescent. Her testimony

A

bout three hours into President Clin-
ton's videotaped deposition before
Kenneth Starr's grand jury, the Presi-
dent recalls the Senate hearings at
which Anita Hill testified about being sexually
harassed by Clarence Thomas. "Now, in some
rational way," Clinton said,'"they could not have
both been telling the truth, since they had
directly different accounts of a shared set of
facts." And, he continues, "what I believed after
it was over, I believed that they both thought
they were telling the truth. This is — you're
dealing with, in some ways, the most mysterious
area of human life."
Let us acknowledge that he knew the video-
tape would eventually be made public and he
was delivering a well-rehearsed line for an
expected national audience.
Still, his point is worth considering. Ulti-
mately, we all believe that what we know is
true. Most of us probably have a pretty clear
memory of our liaisons, but it is at least possi-
ble that Clinton thought he was giving a liter-
ally true answer to the Jones lawyers, given the
cramped description of sex the judge had stip-

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All Aboard!

Cory Shanbom, 2, of Bloomfield Hills, enjoys his first pony
ride at Temple Israel's Labor Day picnic and blood drive on
Sept. 7. The annual event is open to the entire community as
part of the synagogue's building bridges philosophy.

LETTERS

"Sinai clearly is not, and never
will be, what it was." Well,
what is?
Change — positive or nega-
I was shocked to see the cover
tive — is an inevitable fact of
of the Sept. 11 issue of The
life. And the forces responsible
Jewish News.
for the changes at Sinai, as
Who are these two seedy-
your artide points out, began
looking guys walking off with
long before it became part of
the Jewish star? Do they repre-
the DMC. Also, as your article
sent executives of the Detroit
indicates, there are many Sinai
Medical Center? If so, where
and DMC
are their busi-
people work-
ness suits? Are
ing hard to
they the name-
turn the
less "thems" and
potential neg-
"theys" we like
atives of
to use as scape-
change into
goats when dif-
positives. Of
ficult situations
course, as you
arise? If you
must know,
chose this art
your readers
treatment to fan
were already
the flames of
feeling nega-
health care dis-
tive before
content within
they got to
the Detroit Jew-
the article
ish community, you certainly
because of your sinister-looking
accomplished your goal.
cover.
The story, on the other
Shame on you for so irre-
hand, was a fair and balanced
sponsibly and unprofessionally
report about the challenges of
adding to the environment of
creating health care institutions
distrust in the community.
that work with current realities.
Judy 0. Bobrow
Dr. Jay Levenson says toward
Southfield
the end of that article that

Sinister Cover
Was Unfair

9/2
19

Detroit Jewish News