Dry Bones
Thoughts
OBAMA WANTS
AMERICAN JEWS TO
HELP PRESSURE
THE ISRAELIS
SQUEEZE PLAY
TO TAKE A
MUCH MORE
EVEN-HANOEO
APROACH
Killers As Victims' Heirs?
it became the No. 1 issue. It is about time.
As a member of the official American
delegation and the only child of survivors
he Holocaust Era Assets
chosen to speak about the concerns of our
Conference concluded in Prague
aging parents from the perspective of the
with a moving program at Terezin
survivor families, I found my job to enlight-
and a nonbinding declaration emphasiz-
ing that survivors' needs in these, their last
en the world about the issues we face. I was
allotted seven minutes.
years, should be treated with more urgency
About half the Holocaust sur-
than real estate, art or other res-
vivors in the U.S. are living at or
titution issues.
below the poverty line and strug-
Elie Wiesel set the tone bril-
g on a daily basis for basic
liantly by asking if the killers
necessities. Though the number
should become the victims' heirs,
of survivors decreases annually,
telling how the killers "stole not
their needs increase and they
only the wealth of the wealthy but
present unique challenges.
also the poverty of the poor',' and
Holocaust survivors are not
imploring the world to remem-
like other aging Americans. They
ber the survivors whom we have
often have medical conditions
allowed to suffer too much.
Est her
that
began during World War
Amazingly, survivors' needs
Topore k Finder
II.
Injuries
and illnesses from
never appeared on the radar
Spe cial
those
years
can haunt survivors
screen at prior international
Comm entary
today. Because of their wartime
Holocaust-era conferences; but
experiences, they are more likely
this time, survivors and their
to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
children raised their voices and were heard.
If memory problems arise, the survivor may
In Israel, survivors protested; in the U.S.,
be forced to relive Holocaust trauma. Each
the survivors and their children (notably
relived episode is a stab to the heart. And as
Holocaust Survivors Foundation-USA and
memory goes, the last language learned is
Generations of the Shoah International) lob-
bied members of Congress and wrote to draw the first one lost, so some survivors can no
longer speak with their children.
attention to the needs of aging survivors.
There were many moving speeches at
The efforts were successful enough to
the
conference, but specifics were lacking
have changed the dialogue. At first, the topic
regarding
how to solve the residual fallout
of aging survivors was not on the agenda,
of
the
Shoah.
There were calls for "heirless"
then added as a "special session." Ultimately
Rockwood, Md.
T
property in Central
Europe to be used
to fund services for
survivors. Poland and
Lithuania, two coun-
tries with outstanding
ANO TO DROP
. IS SO
property claims, are
ISRAEL'S
CURRENT
BLATENTLY
not interested in resti-
ONE-SIOEO
PRO-ISRAEL!
tuting or compensat-
POSITION
WHICH
ing Jewish property.
Also, the German
property experience
had the effect of pit-
ting heirs against
needy survivors. The
Conference on Jewish
Material Claims
Against Germany han-
dled property claims
www.DrvBonesBloa.com
in virtual secrecy; that
and governments that participated in this,
cannot be allowed again.
the greatest theft in history?
The controversial Claims Conference 80-
It is time to speak directly with survivor
20 split — 80 percent to survivors' needs
families to assess the needs. We look to
and 20 percent to education and remem-
brance — needs to change. As long as there Stuart Eizenstat and Christian Kennedy, U.S.
are survivors unable to buy food or medical Reps. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., and Ileanna
Ross-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and others for help
necessities, they must be the 100 percent
in this late hour. Let us not allow the killers
priority. Use of victim money for these
to
continue to be the heirs of our murdered
non-survivor projects must cease until the
brethren.
L-I
needs of all survivors are fully funded.
Nothing was officially acknowledged
Esther Toporek Finder is president of The
about the billions of dollars global insur-
Generation After and a member of the coor-
ers such as Generali and Allianz and oth-
dinating council of Generations of the Shoah
ers have retained from Holocaust victims.
International.
And what about the banks, manufacturers
Reality Check
Strange
M
y favorite book title of all
time is Ring Lardner's Shut
Up, He Explained.
That's what I flash to every time I hear
the phrase "teachable moment:' All too
often it seems what is actually being
taught is that an aggrieved minority
member has the right to vent his anger
while the target of his wrath has to clam
up and take it.
The recent "beer summit:' which
brought together the president, a
Harvard professor and the Cambridge
police officer who arrested him, was
billed as such a moment.
It seemed to me that more could be
taught, however, by each person's choice
of beer.
The president chose Bud Lite. He kind
of had to do that, being the president
and all. He wasn't going to pick some
highfalutin' Belgian beer. No, it had to be
the most recognizable domestic, and I
felt sorry for the guy.
Left to his own devices, it seems
rews
unlikely he would have picked a
Budweiser, which defines mass
market mediocrity as far as
beers go. His taste seems way
too refined for that. Ironically
enough, Bud is now owned by a
Belgian brewery, anyhow.
The policeman, Sgt. James
Crowley, took Blue Moon. It
seems surprising a Boston guy
wouldn't have picked a Sam
Adams. But Blue Moon isn't
what it seems to be, either.
Marketed as a craft beer, a
local Colorado product that con-
noisseurs prefer, it is actually
produced by the gigantic Coors brewery.
So while the sergeant may have thought
he was making a distinctive choice, he
was also caught in the corporate web.
Finally, Henry Louis Gates Jr., a
renowned scholar in the field of black
history, came up with Red Stripe as his
favorite beer. This is, of course, a beer
from a black-governed country, Jamaica.
Its latest advertising cam-
paign was built around a
black spokesman who ended
each segment with the slo-
gan,"Hooray, been"
Here again, however, we
run into false pretenses. The
majority owner of Red Stripe
is now the Guinness Brewing
Co. of Dublin, Ireland.
So what was can we make
of this teachable moment?
First of all, presidents do not
have unlimited power when
it comes to making symbolic
gestures. And a mug of beer
is a shaky vessel for making a personal
statement. It is, however, very good when
used in a sauce for meatloaf.
It all made me melancholy for the
Detroit-area beers that are no more.
There was Goebel, for years the sponsors
of Tigers and Lions games on TV, with
its ridiculous company symbol, Brewster
the Rooster.
There was E&B, Brew 103, so named
because it took that many tries before
they finally got the taste right. In one of
early Detroit television's most treasured
moments, the live camera didn't pull
away from the host fast enough and
caught him spitting a mouthful of the
stuff onto an adjacent potted plant.
There was Pfeiffer and Altes, hon-
est German beers from the east side of
town.
Most of all, there was Stroh's, a name
known to the last generation only as a
purveyor of ice cream.
All of them crunched up and dis-
carded by their inability to compete with
the national brewing giants and their
massive marketing campaigns.
As for me, it doesn't matter if it's a Dos
Equis, a Pilsner Urquell or a Maccabi. On
a muggy summer evening, just pour it
straight and true. 7:
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aol.com.
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