Local group meets with, backs Maryland congressman; Maxwell speaks on Mengele

World Alliance’s Maryland Ally

“I breathe Israel. When I go there, I’m 18 years old again,” said Grace Anter, a genteel woman in her 70s.

“See? That’s the attitude I want young people to have,” said Esther Azal, executive director of World Alliance for Israel Political Action Committee (WAIPAC). “Sometimes we think of the pro-Israel community as a monolith. But we’re just individuals who care.”

Those individuals were a small, staunch group who gathered at the Beverly Hills home of WAIPAC President Jayne Shapiro on Jan. 30 for a briefing with Rep. Albert Wynn (D-Maryland).

So what brought a Maryland rep out to Los Angeles just as an important primary was heating up in his own state? Well, the weather for one, and some strategic fundraising for an election in which Wynn appears a vulnerable incumbent.
Enter WAIPAC, which is happy to support a candidate who has demonstrated support for Israel.

In addition to his voting record, public remarks and visits to Israel, Rep. Wynn was knowledgeable about the issues the Jewish state faces. He spoke about his recent meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the fraught situation regarding the Gaza border.

“It is important to stay engaged. I criticize the Bush administration most because they disengaged, and only now at the very end is he trying to initiate dialogue,” he said.

Wynn emphasized the ascendancy of moderate Arab nations in cultivating peaceful ties between Israel and her neighbors.

“I am committed to Israel’s security and existence and peace and safety,” he said.

And WAIPAC is committed to him.

“I haven’t heard some Israelis and Jews talk about Israel from the heart like you do,” Shapiro said to Wynn during her closing remarks.

With their mutually beneficial relationship secured — WAIPAC supporting Wynn and vice versa — guests were treated to a decadent buffet by candlelight while they talked politics.

“I help these people keep their job, to do what they love to do,” Azal said. “And he’s not afraid to speak out and say ‘Israel is the right choice.'”

But what does WAIPAC do if Wynn doesn’t win re-eletion?

“I move on to the next one,” Azal said.

SCENE AND HEARD…

Before Auschwitz became a death camp and a byword for the Holocaust, it was the Polish town of Oswiecim, with Jews making up more than half of its population and city council membership.

How these and other Polish Jews lived, worked and prayed is the special study of Dr. David Marwell, who shared his insights at a small private gathering on Jan. 28 at the splendid home of Deborah Oppenheimer in Westwood.

Oppenheimer won an Oscar for her moving documentary, “Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport,” and her guests represented a cross-section of Hollywood’s creative talent.

Marwell is the director of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan, which has taken over the stewardship of the Auschwitz Jewish Center.

The center is housed in the only local synagogue to have survived the Nazi terror, having been used as a munitions storage warehouse by the German army and later as a carpet store under the Communists.

Now fully restored, the synagogue serves as a focal point for Holocaust education and a place of reflection for visitors to the nearby extermination camp.

Marwell previously served as a key researcher for the U.S. Office of Special Investigations, tasked with tracking down such war criminals as Klaus Barbie and the “Angel of Death,” Dr. Josef Mengele.

During his visit to the Southland, Marwell spoke about the Mengele case at Temple Emanuel and in Newport Beach.

— Tom Tugend, Contributing Editor

For information about the Jewish Museum and the Auschwitz Center, visit http://www.mjhny.org and http://www.ajcf.org.