Opinion
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Editorial
Denied By The U.N.
I
f you were hoping the arrival of
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
would mark a change in attitude
toward Israel at the United Nations, a
committee vote in mid-May should give
you pause.
The Committee on NGOs of the U.N.
Economic and Social Council voted 8-7,
with three abstentions, to deny consulta-
tive status to the American branch of the
Jewish National Fund.
JNF is an officially recognized NGO,
or nongovernmental organization, at the
United Nations, but that gives the agency
limited access. An upgrade to consultative
status would have allowed JNF to testify at
Economic and Social Council meetings.
The council oversees 70 percent of the
human and financial resources of the U.N.
system, including programs that fall with-
in JNF's area of expertise, such as water,
forestation and sustainable development.
No organization knows more about
planting trees, maximizing water resourc-
es and developing areas others see as
wasteland than JNF, which bought and
built much of the modern state of Israel.
Countless other nations could benefit
from that expertise. People around the
world with no connection to Israel or the
Jewish people are living better lives today
because of JNF.
But that U.N. committee couldn't see
any value to including JNF in its discus-
sions, even though some 2,800 other non-
governmental organizations already have
consultative status at the United Nations.
The reason was simple: Israel.
"This was about denying Israel's right to
exist, and because JNF of America equals
Israel, we took the hit:' said Joseph Hess,
JNF's national vice president of govern-
ment relations. "Because JNF is inextri-
cably linked to the land of Israel — the
coins we collected purchased it, and ever
since our work has developed it — they
cannot separate us from their desire to
delegitimize the state of Israel!'
Israel is a member of the committee
that voted, but it wasn't enough. Israel,
the United States, the United Kingdom
(despite the rising anti-Israel sentiment
being expressed in Britain), Colombia,
Romania, Peru and Turkey (perhaps
Israel's one true friend in the Muslim
world) supported JNF.
Negative votes came from Egypt (as
the cold peace continues), Qatar, Burundi,
Guinea, Russia, Cuba, China and Sudan.
It speaks well of Israel to have enemies
like those.
It's disappointing, if not surprising, that
America's key Muslim ally in the war on
terrorism, Pakistan, abstained on the vote.
The same is true for India, which has a
growing relationship with Israel.
Angola also abstained; Dominica
missed the vote.
The Syrians and Palestinians led the
opposition to JNF's request. The substance
of their argument was that the agency
failed to prove it was not supporting Israeli
activities in the "Palestinian territories."
"The eight countries who voted against
us weren't voting against the significance
of our work',' said Rabbi Eric Lankin, the
chief of institutional advancement and
education at JNF. "This was a geopolitical
fight which has nothing to do with who
JNF is and what we do. We just wanted the
opportunity to present our expertise."
JNF must wait three years to reapply,
which means the United Nations must
wait at least three years to enjoy the
wealth of JNF's knowledge. And that just
shows again that the United Nations as
a whole is far more interested in attack-
ing Israel — a country created through
a U.N. resolution passed nearly 60 years
ago — than doing anything to make the
world a better place.
came to you at birth to carry
something on. What exactly
that is supposed to be may not
be fully understood in a life-
time. But we look to the past
to make sense of our lives and
to our children to give them
meaning.
At my bar mitzvah, my
clearest memory is of my
grandmother hugging me
and crying after the service. I
never saw her cry before and
it startled me.
My grandfather had then been gone
a little more than 13 years. At my age
it seemed like the distant past. Now,
13 years is almost no time at all. A loss
would still be painfully fresh. And I car-
ried his name.
Our first granddaughter, Caryn, is
named for our daughter, Courtney, who
was in turn named for that grandmother.
Their name is Chaya. We are delighted
that Caryn recognizes the
photograph of Courtney that
we keep in the living room and
identifies it by name.
Of course, she has no idea
beyond that. Both Sherry and
I claim to see elements of
Courtney's feisty but loving
personality in her. Or maybe
it's what the psychologists like
to call projection.
But I know the day will
come when she will look at
the picture and ask the same questions
I once asked. There will be so much I'll
want to tell her. But I know exactly how
I'll begin.
"That is your Aunt Courtney:' I will say.
"She was smart and funny and full of the
devil. And, my God, how she would have
loved you."
Send letters of no more than 150 words to:
letters@thejewishnews.com .
Reality Check
What's In A Name?
A
mong the most meaningful tra-
ditions in Judaism is the prac-
tice of naming children after a
relative who no longer is living.
It not only perpetuates a name but also
brings a deeper connection to the arrival
of the newborn. So much more than
merely plucking a name at random from
some baby book.
My Hebrew name is Nahum Yehuda.
I learned recently that it was the same
name borne by my great-great-grandfa-
ther. I know almost nothing else about the
man. He was probably born around 1835,
probably died around 1885 and probably
lived in Minsk. But I found it consoling to
trace my name back that far.
His name was passed on to my own
grandfather and then to me.
Naturally, I was always curious about
the grandfather I never knew but whose
name I carried, both in English and in
Hebrew. He died seven months before I
was born.
22
June 14 2007
When I asked about him as a child, my
mother would begin by telling me, "How
he would have loved you."
Over the years, other bits and pieces
came together: His escape from serving
in the Czar's army. His career as a chazzan
(cantor). The owner of successful cloth-
ing and shoe stores in Detroit. The big
house on Vinewood Ave. that those stores
bought. The illness and Great Depression
when it all was lost. His love of learning
and music and natty clothes.
My Uncle Seymour has a marvelous old
poster that shows great-great-grandpa
in top hat and tallit, billed as the "noted
tenor" and chazzan for the High Holidays
at one of the little shuls off Dexter some
time in the 1930s.
Maybe it's another birthday coming
around that raises these thoughts. But
how many times have you wondered
about the person for whom you were
named? It isn't a burden exactly, but it is
clearly a responsibility — a charge that
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aol.com.