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Revitalizing The Conference
N
ext week, the 54-member Confer-
ence of Presidents of Major Amer-
ican Jewish Organizations will
meet to elect its chairman for the
next two years, most likely New
York publisher and real estate
tycoon Mortimer Zuckerman. It
would be healthy for the confer-
ence if it also were to vote to create a task
force to study its own future and how it
might get back in touch with more Jewish
Americans.
Since its founding in 1956, the conference
has been a strong voice on a number of issues
important to both the state and the nation of
Israel. For example, it significantly helped
raise public opinion in America in opposition
to the United Nations' infamous "Zionism is
racism resolution" and it has worked hard to
assure a place in America for Jews from the
former Soviet Union.
But in recent years, it has been less effective
either in creating consensus among the range of
organizations in this country or in articulating
to world capitals the commonl y held feelings of
the majority of American Jews.
It seems to Ix an important organization —
its chairman is usually received by the leaders
of the Israeli government and its positions lis-
tened to by the U.S. State Department. But
the reality is that, much of the time, the atten-
tion given it is merely polite because it has nei-
ther big money to spend nor large numbers of
members to mobilize for political action. And
in recent years, its stances on a number of
issues have been those of a minority of Ameri-
can Jews, relatively conservative and hawkish
individuals whose backgrounds and views dif-
fer from most of our six million.
It is not, of course, the fault of the confer-
ence that Jews here have found so many
causes other than Israel to attract
their interest. It would have been
impossible in 1956 to foresee the
issues such as assimilation or Jewish
education that are now at the fore-
front. Conference supporters argue that the
new intifada (Palestinian uprising) affirms
the need for the organization, because the
physical safety of Israel is endangered.
But many American Jews, while deeply
committed to the Israeli state, are weary of
thinking about the endless violence of the
Mideast. Some doubt that the state is actually
in danger of being overrun, and a number har-
bor criticism of Israeli policies that they see as
needlessly oppressive of the Palestinians.
For the conference, as for a number of
other Jewish entities, times and needs have
changed. Israel continues to need supportive
voices in this country, but it is foolish to
believe that one organization — particularly
one without real membership — could speak
for all of us. Indeed, Israel may well be better
served by the fact that America supports a
panoply of separate organizations eager to
debate what is best for state and nation.
The Presidents' Conference needs to rein-
vent itself, to find a role that reflects current
realities and needs. Its membership does
include the biggest organizations, so it should
be able to articulate the feelings of grassroots
American Jewry. It would be a shame if the
conference lets itself deteriorate into a mere
photo opportunity for whoever currently hap-
pens to hold the title of chairman.
EDITO RIAL
Related story: page 22
Dry Bones
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They Need Us And We Need Them
CO ur children were fascinated by the reac-
tion of surrounding passengers when we
landed in Israel a ft v weeks ago.
"Why are they all crossing themselves?"
asked 9-year old Jonathan. "Are they Christian?" he
asked incredulously? We explained to him that these
were all Christian pilgrims taking the same exciting trip
that we were to visit the holy sites in Israel.
The question he did not know how to ask was this:
"Where are all the other Jews like us?" Aside from a
few Israeli businessmen, we and another family from
Detroit, the Wertheimer-Gales of Southfield, were
some of the very few American Jews on the flight.
That's not to say we weren't scared. After weeks
Joanna Abramson and her husband, Jay, live in West
Bloomfield with their four children.
of pleading calls from well-
meaning family members and
friends, we decided to stick to
our plan to take this trip as an
important way to celebrate the
recent bar mitzvahs of our two
older sons, Josh, now 15, and
Jacob, 13.
The boys all asked us, in
their own ways, if it was "safe"
JOANNA
to go now? They listen to
ABRAMSON
National Public Radio (NPR)
Community
and watch Cable News Net-
Views
work (CNN), just as we do.
They hear and see the endless
montages about ston e-throwing youths getting
"attacked" by Israeli army tanks, about the bombs
that go off in places we are scheduled to visit.
They hear the daily tally of the dead from this
most recent uprising — which always ends with the
modifier, "most of them Palestinian." Our eldest
son, Josh, asked, not even half-jokingly, "Shouldn't
we just go to a theme park?"
How do we explain to our sons that Israel was
established as a Jewish state just two months after
their Uncle Bob was born in 1948. That before
1948, Israel was just a dream for us Jews for thou-
sands of years, for hundreds of generations of Jews, a
paragraph in prayer books, references in our Torah.
How do we convey what a miracle this chance was to
visit this country that our greatest teacher, Moshe,
never entered?
How do we show them that Israel needs our help
now, more than ever before, while doing everything
THEY NEED US on page 36
5/18
2001
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