Ideas & Issues
JULIA GOLDMAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York
N
ew reports that North
America's central Jewish
philanthropic and social
service organization had
considered honoring Yasser Arafat
with a prestigious award has raised
eyebrows across the Jewish world.
The United Jewish Communities is
denying reports that it had made
preparations to present its Isaiah
Award to the chairman of the
Palestinian Authority in October.
UJC officials have confirmed that
Arafat's name was floated among pos-
sible honorees.
Still, UJC
President
Stephen
Solender said
honoring
Controversy
Arafat at this
time would be
over award
),
premature.
That Arafat
involving
was even being
Arafat
considered for
the award
shows what
shows what a
difference a
a difference
decade has
made in
a decade
reforming the
can make.
reputation of a
man once
almost univer-
sa lly consid-
ered the arch-
enemy of Jews.
It also raises questions about the extent
to which Jews should embrace Arafat.
Menachem Rosensaft, a former
president of the Labor Zionist
Alliance, is founding chairman of the
International Network of the Children
of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. He was
one of the first American Jews to sit
with Arafat at a 1988 meeting orga-
nized by Sweden.
A five-member delegation of Jewish
Americans, acting on their own, went
to Stockholm to discuss prospects for
peace in the Middle East with a
Palestine Liberation Organization
contingent.
At the time, Israelis were forbidden
from meeting with PLO members,
and the United States refused to enter
into negotiations with PLO represen-
tatives. After the Reagan administra-
America — including the JCPA,
Presidents Conference, American
Jewish Committee and Jewish commu-
nity federations — have made meeting
with Palestinian representatives a regu-
lar feature of their missions to Israel.
Still, many Jews continue to dis-
trust Arafat.
As recently as 1998, pressure from
some American Jewish groups forced
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum to rescind an invitation to
the Palestinian Authority leader to
tour the museum. The museum re-
extended the invitation; which Arafat
ultimately declined. In the wake of
this controversy, museum director
Walter Reich, who had opposed the
invitation,
resigned his
post.
Rosensaft, a
member of the
museum's
executive com-
mittee, sup-
ported Arafat's
coming to the
museum ccin
the hope that
it would have
an impact on
him, and he
might have
learned some-
thing" about
the signifi-
cance of the
Holocaust on
the Jewish and
Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat
Israeli psyche.
Arafat may
have
shared
with
Israeli
Prime
meet openly — and often — with
Minister Yitzhak Rabin the "geopoliti-
Palestinians, including Arafat.
cal honor" of the Nobel Peace Prize in
In 1994, representatives of JCPA,
1994, but Arafat "is still someone who
then called the National Jewish
has
the responsibility for the deaths of
Community Relations Advisory
Jewish men, women and children on
Council, made one of the first trips to
his conscience," Rosensaft said.
visit Arafat's headquarters in the Gaza
And while he may have moved
Strip.
beyond
that, and it is important to
The following year, when Arafat
view
him
as a political partner, there's
came to the 50th anniversary celebra-
a
difference
between that and giving
tions at the United Nations in New
him
an
award."
York, he addressed NJCRAC's execu-
The Isaiah Award, named for the
tive committee as part of his first
visionary
biblical prophet, is given at
meetings with American Jews in the
the
discretion
of lay leaders of the
United States.
UJC,
the
new
entity formed by the
During that same trip, past chair-
merger
of
the
United
Jewish Appeal,
men of the Conference of Presidents of
Council
of
Jewish
Federations
and
Major American Jewish Organizations,
United
Israel
Appeal.
another umbrella organization, held a
Past recipients include Rabin,
private meeting with Arafat.
President Bill Clinton and South
Today many Jewish groups in
tion, citing Arafat's "associations with
terrorism," refused him a visa to
address a U.N. session in December
1988, the session was moved from
New York to Geneva to enable the
PLO leader to speak.
The American Jews' participation
in the Stockholm talks was met with
criticism and some outright hostility.
Rosensaft said that, with a few notable
exceptions, he and his family were
"attacked and vilified" because of his
participation in the meeting.
It was not until 1993, when Israeli
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
cemented the peace process by shak-
ing Arafat's hand on the White House
lawn, that American Jews began to
Coming Into Favor
CC
11/5
1999
Remember
When • •
From the pages of the Jewish News
for this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.
1989
Roundtrip airfare to Israel was
made available for $700 on carriers
El Al, PanAm, TWA and KLM.
Jewish Federation Apartments,
National Council of Jewish Women
and Jewish Home for Aged hired
national food management service
Morrison Custom Management
Inc. to prepare the meals that each
organization serves daily.
19'79
The Jewish Federation in Fort Wayne,
Ind., protested an Indiana University
invitation to a PLO representative at
the U.N. to speak on campus.
The movie Monty Python's Life of
Brian was subject to protest in the
Detroit area by a religious sect
called the Ambassadors of Christ.
1969
Alan Schwartz was elected president
of the executive committee of the
Jewish Welfare Federation.
Max M. Fisher was named by
President Richard Nixon to chair
the newly created National Center
for Voluntary Action.
Three Arab terrorists accused of
attacking an El Al airliner at a
Zurich airport were remanded for
trial in Geneva.
1959
Maxwell Katzen was elected presi-
dent of the Fresh Air Society.
Samuel A. Levy, director of the
Jewish Center's Ten Mile Branch,
was presented with an award for
good sportsmanship.
1940
A Leo M. Franklin Chair in
Human Relations was established at
Wayne University through the
action of the board of trustees of
Temple Beth El and the Detroit
Board of Education.
Friends and family announced
plans for a testimonial dinner to
honor Nathan Schreiber on his 65th
birthday.
— Compiled by Sy Manello,
editorial assistant