July 31, 2003

Reeve Superhero to Israeli Terror Victims

Leave a Comment / Cover Story, Israel / Gaby Wenig

On this hot Tuesday morning in central Israel, Elad Wassa sits in his wheelchair, his dark eyes bright with anticipation. One year ago, Wassa, a Falasha (Ethiopian Jew), was working at a vegetable stand in a Netanya market when a bomb exploded as he was bending down to pick up some potatoes, paralyzing him from the chest down.

Today, Wassa, 25, is at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, practicing his speech for actor and activist Christopher Reeve, who visited Israel from July 28 to Aug. 1.

Wassa was instrumental in bringing Reeve to Israel. Last year, Wassa’s family was “adopted” by Rick Fishbein at Stephen S. Wise Temple, through Israel Emergency Solidarity Fund-One Family, which matches up families of terror victims with supportive communities in the Diaspora. Fishbein helped get a letter to Reeve, founder of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation.

Smiling buoyantly, Wassa wheels his chair next to Reeve’s and covers Reeve’s hand with his own as he makes his speech.

“Welcome to Israel,” Wassa stammers to Reeve. “You are my hero.”

The actor best known for his Superman role is a real-life hero to many people here in Israel, especially since the Al Aksa Intifada attacks have injured and paralyzed thousands of Israelis. For many Israelis, Reeve represents hope for the future, both emotionally, through his very public determination to walk again, and practically, through the millions of dollars he has raised for scientific research to find a cure for paralysis.

Reeve is one of the only celebrities to visit Israel since the intifada began. Most of the big names in Hollywood — including many famous Jews — have stayed conspicuously silent on the issue of Israel, and few have expressed solidarity with or visited the country. Other celebrities, like Jerry Seinfeld and Elton John, pulled out of planned Israel trips at the last minute.

“Mr. Reeve is an inspirational figure who has a unique story to tell Israel and the world,” said Yuval Rotem, Israeli consul general in Los Angeles, who invited Reeve to visit Israel and convinced the foreign ministry in Jerusalem to follow through.

“From our perspective, it is important to show that beyond the daily headlines, Israel is a country of remarkable scientific and medical advances that benefit all mankind,” Rotem said. (Reeve’s trip was sponsored by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, as well as the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, private donors Haim Saban of Saban Capital Group, Arnon Milchen of New Regency and Danny Dimbort and Avi Lerner of New Image.)

“Israel is a warm, welcoming, friendly and surprisingly relaxed country,” Reeve told The Journal. “The images you see in the press tend to be about some of the worst things that happen in the country, but what you don’t see is the wonderful color and normalcy of daily life. Certainly, one needs to be thoughtful and take certain precautions, but I feel very welcome and comfortable here.”

Reeve said that one of reasons he came to Israel was to meet Wassa.

“I get letters from all over the world, asking for my advice and personal involvement,” Reeve says in a voice that fades slightly after every few words. “Elad’s story was particularly moving to me because he is a young man and victim of random violence in a country that has seen so much violence.”

“His story touched me, particularly because he is so young, and this kind of severe illness is particularly devastating to young people,” Reeve continues. “It is easier for a young person to be depressed and to want to give up, but Elad did neither of those things. Instead, he took action.”

Reeve was older — 43 — when he became a paraplegic eight years ago, thrown from a horse during in an equestrian event. After his accident, Reeve had only 12 percent sensory ability in his body. Since then, he vigorously set about rehabilitating himself, using aquatic therapy and special bikes that stimulate his nerves with electrodes, which enabled his body to begin making its recovery.

According to some news reports, Reeve spends more than $400,000 a year on his supportive care. Now he has 70 percent sensory ability in his body. Considering that doctors told him he would stay at 12 percent for the rest of his life, his progress is remarkable.

Reeve’s paralysis and activism have helped millions of people around the world with spinal cord injuries. He brought a human — and very famous — face to paralysis. He used his fame to raise more than $45 million to fund researchers all over the globe to find cures and therapies for paralysis. Since 1999, his foundation has awarded more than $2.4 million to nonprofit organizations that help those with spinal cord injuries. He also lobbied the federal government to double financial funding to the National Institutes of Health (from $12 billion in 1998 to $25 billion in 2002); he testified before Senate Appropriations Committees in favor of federally funded stem cell research; got New York to allocate $8.5 million to spinal cord injury research, and he worked with Sens. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) and John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va) to raise lifetime caps on insurance policies from $1 million to $10 million.

During his five-day visit to Israel, Reeve met with scientists and doctors at the forefront of Israeli stem cell research. He also toured the country, met with injured Israelis like Wassa, and was scheduled to meet with government officials. As part of The Federation portion of his visit, Reeve attended a “Profiles in Courage” dinner, where met with people who survived terror attacks, and also participated in a workshop for young filmmakers from the Los Angeles Tel Aviv Master Class.

At the Weizmann Institute’s Neurobiology Department lab, two paraplegics, Tzafrir Chaklai and Asher Machmid, demonstrate to Reeve their progress, resulting from their trials of Proneuron, a company founded by Weizmann scientist Dr. Michal Schwartz.

Schwartz is one of Reeve’s heroes, says the actor’s 23-year-old son, Matthew Reeve, who is shooting a documentary about the visit. “He definitely cites her a lot and he is really enthusiastic about what is going on over here,” the younger Reeve says.

“I met Christopher as someone who was desperate for a therapy,” Schwartz says. “He had looked all over the world. He was interested in visiting Israel because he wanted to see my research not from a distance, and to learn more about what we are doing. The fact that he is here shows the world that there is more to Israel than just intifada or terrorism.”

Reeve met Schwartz when he was first injured, and he heard about her research in using the body’s own immune system to create cells that can be recruited to heal debilitating central nervous system disorders.

“Michal Schwartz came to my house outside New York and told me about a theory that certain cells in the body — macrophages — make an environment for healing and could be used to clean the area damaged right after a spinal chord injury to create an atmosphere for regeneration and recovery,” Reeve says. “A lot of people thought it was a crazy idea, but a lot of the great ideas that succeeded over time were considered to be crazy. I have tracked her progress over the years and her success is exemplary.”

The “crazy idea” produced dramatic results.

Moving slowly and deliberately, Machmid stands up, something he learned to do after the trials. Chaklai told Reeve that after the trial Machmid could move his toe and regained sensation in his leg.

At Tel Hashomer, a large Tel Aviv hospital, dozens of injured and paralyzed people enter the reception room one by one, until the room is full of wheelchairs jostling for space to catch a glimpse of Reeve.

In the front sits Idon Cohen, who went from being a 19-year-old soldier to a double amputee when a bomb exploded near his legs, leaving him with the stumps that now extend only a few inches from the seat of his wheelchair. Next to him sits Yitzchak Hamoy, a middle-aged man from B’nai B’rak who has not walked since he was injured in a tractor accident that gave him the long red scars that run up the length of his left leg. Others in the room display serious levels of spasticity; some struggle to keep their bodies upright in the chairs, others are wheeled in on beds, since they could only lie prone.

Everyone is excited to meet Reeve.

“Superman’s coming. It gives me hope to see someone like that,” Cohen says.

“I think Reeve is a very interesting man,” Hamoy says. “I heard about his accident, and I would like to see him. Maybe I can talk to him and ask him something about how he continues with his paralysis.”

Reeve enters the room accompanied by a gaggle of security personnel and minders, and the patients start asking him questions. Mostly, they want him to help them get better; to know about different treatments and different hospitals. Reeve answers the questions diplomatically. He doesn’t recommend one treatment over another, because his foundation funds many different treatments, but he is outspoken in his praise for Israeli research.

“Israel is one of the leading countries in the world that is most progressive and the most compassionate about people like us,” he tells the crowd.

He also speaks to the crowd about their injuries.

“My level of injury is higher than yours,”

he says to one girl who was in a wheelchair, but could move her arms, who asked about a

certain hospital. “I am a C2 [mid-level motor skills]. I was told that I would never move below my shoulder — and that was in 1995 — but I began to exercise, using electrical stimulation and I began to get back my motor and sensory abilities. No doctor can tell you what the future will be, because no one knows.”

“I would say that it is hard to become motivated, and it is hard to believe in the future, but it is something that I have believed ever since my injury,” Reeve says.

“Now, let me see if I can get this right: hacol efshari — everything is possible.”

To learn more about the Christopher Reeve Paralysis
Foundation, visit www.apacure.com. For more information on the Weizmann
Institute, visit www.weizmann.ac.il .

Tom Tugend contributed to this report.

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Japanese Youngsters Sing Shalom

Leave a Comment / Up Front / Michael Aushenker

When Temple Beth Am of Los Angeles extended a konnichi wa during Saturday services to its Japanese visitors, they answered “Shabbat shalom.”

Small Hands, a group of Japanese goodwill ambassadors, ages 12-18, offered a cultural exchange on its July 26 visit. The Conservative synagogue was one of several spots on Small Hands’ July 23-26 Southern California tour under the auspices of the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles.

The teen group, formed in 1997 by the Holocaust Education Center of Japan, has dedicated itself to learning about the horrors of the Holocaust and gleaning from it a cross-cultural message of peace, which it promotes.

Dressed in traditional kimonos, the 15-member Small Hands group performed before a packed sanctuary a medley of traditional Japanese songs — “Twinkling Stars,” “Fireflies” and “Ocean” — before performing enthusiastic versions of “Havenu Sholom Alechem,” “David Melech Israel” and “Oseh Shalom” in Hebrew. After, seven female members performed a native sakura (“cherry blossoms”) dance.

The Rev. Makoto Otsuka, director general of Japan’s Holocaust Education Center, founded the museum, which focuses on the 1.5 million children murdered by the Nazis. He believes that this aspect of the Holocaust is a window into the Shoah for today’s children.

He told The Journal that his inspiration was a chance 1971 encounter in Israel with Anne Frank’s father, whom he met while performing in with a Christian choir. Since opening its doors in June 1995, the Holocaust Education Center — located in Fukuyama, just outside Hiroshima — has had 60,000 visitors. Otsuka said that reaching beyond Japan’s 2,000 Jews — through schoolchildren — is his museum’s goal.

Otsuka’s daughter, Masami, translated for Small Hands members Kanami Kanbara and Michinobu Iwamoto, both 16. Kanbara said that Small Hands fits nicely with her ambition to learn languages and work with other cultures. Iwamoto spoke highly of his first tour of California. His personal highlight — without hesitation — Disneyland.

Other stops on Small Hands’ itinerary included: the Museum of Tolerance; Camp Alonim; the Jewish Home for the Aging; a meeting with Imperial Toys founder/Holocaust survivor Fred Kort; and a San Diego visit with university lecturer/Holocaust survivor Dr. John Stoessinger, who is one of the thousands of Jews saved in World War II by Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese consul-general in Nazi-occupied Lithuania.

For information on the Holocaust Education Center, visit www.urban.ne.jp/home/hecjpn .

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Thanks for the Memories, Bob

Leave a Comment / Up Front / Gabriella Burman

“Who’s A Jew” may be our tribe’s favorite trivia game, but when it came to Bob Hope — who died July 27 at 100 — his ski-slope nose gave it away: the comedian was not Jewish.

But his comedy, inescapably, was. The British Protestant referred to the Academy Awards, which he hosted 13 times, as “Passover” because he never won an Oscar. And throughout his career, Hope employed Jewish writers.

Hal Kanter, for instance, co-wrote a dozen screenplays for Hope, Leo Robin and Robert Rainger wrote his signature tune, “Thanks for the Memory,” and Norman Panama and Melvin Frank wrote the screenplay for “The Road to Utopia.” Brooklyn-born Melville Shavelson directed him in perhaps his best dramatic film, “The Seven Little Foys.”

“On the simplest level, the New York wise-guy approach to humor appealed to him,” said Lawrence J. Epstein, author of “The Haunted Smile: The Story of Jewish Comedians in America.”

“He made it look so easy, too,” Epstein said.

Unlike many comics who preceded him, including Groucho Marx, “Hope wasn’t manic,” Epstein added. “He wasn’t up there sweating. There was a sense of being in control. He looked the camera in the eye, and he let the audience in on the joke, as if to say, this is only a movie about nothing — let’s have some fun.”

But Hope’s legacy is richer than comedy alone. He performed during a century fraught with war and conflict — often in venues his peers avoided.

He not only visited burn units and hospitals on hundreds of military bases worldwide, he also raised money for Israel in the 1940s at a rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

“It was at the invitation of screenwriter Ben Hecht,” Epstein said. “It wasn’t a popular time, but Hope was a good guy. And by rallying troops around the world in World War II, on a deeper level you could say he was helping Jews around the world.”

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Your Letters

Leave a Comment / Letters to the Editor / Jewish Journal

Davis Recall

Does Gov. Davis expect the 67 percent of the Jews that vote for the Democratic Party to become whores and support him for the $40.2 million donated to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Zimmer Museum and the Skirball Museum (“Davis Recall Fight Plays Jewish Card” July 25)?

His Jewish supporters have already been rewarded with:

1. The worst state government in the nation.

2. The state government that is rated last in being business friendly.

3. A massive amount of businesses and jobs leaving the state.

4. A huge amount of money spent on school systems that are failing their students.

5. An $8 billion surplus that was thrown away.

6. A $38 billion deficit.

7. Complete incompetence and bumbling in the so-called energy crises.

As a Jew, I am embarrassed that my fellow Jews continue to support the socialist Democrats of this state. This support of the “progressive agenda” has become almost psychotic; it does not seem to matter that our state is collapsing. They do not face reality.

Laurence F. Almond, Los Angeles

Since when are we Jews and our Jewish politicians defending corrupt politicians? Gray Davis has squandered our tax money and lied to us.

Jews once respected high ethics and honesty, but now Mel Levine says we shouldn’t support the recall, because it will cost too much and bring instability to our government, hurting Jews and other minorities.

What weak excuses! How can he look at himself in the mirror?

The money it would cost is a mere pittance compared to what Davis has already squandered. Why give him a pass for three more years to squander billions more?

Most of all, I resent the use of scare tactics to make us accept the malfeasance of an incompetent, dishonest governor, who will stop at nothing to stay in power. I, for one, refuse to be manipulated by politicians who think they can count on my Jewish vote to enable their nefarious deeds.

Suzi Patrusky, Beverly Hills

It was outrageous for former Rep. Mel Levine to convene a meeting and announce that the “Jewish community” opposes the Davis recall. No one has the right to speak for the whole Jewish population on any partisan political matter — or to put such a matter in Jewish terms.

Levine’s actions weren’t just absurd and undemocratic, they were terribly arrogant and even dangerous. The organized Jewish community, through The Jewish Federation, the Board of Rabbis [of Southern California] and others, should publicly rebuke Levine and emphasize publicly that no one can speak for the Jewish population on a partisan political matter.

Dr. Bruce J. Schneider, Irvine

Smoke or Cheat

In framing his hypothetical moral question, smoking vs. cheating, in absolute terms, without allowing for any variables, Dennis Prager reveals once again his Manichaean worldview (“Prefer Your Teen to Smoke or to Cheat?” July 25).

To Prager, something is either good or it’s evil, black or white, conservative (good) or liberal (bad). That’s why he won’t accept what I think would be the response of most parents, namely, that they wouldn’t want their teen to smoke or cheat.

Are we talking about a 13-year-old junior high student or an 18-year-old college freshman? Did the kid look at a classmate’s paper one time, occasionally copy someone else’s homework or did he break into the teacher’s office and steal the exam as part of a long pattern of cheating? Did she take a drag from a friend’s cigarette one time, does she smoke a couple of times a year or does she have a two-pack-a-day habit? If Prager can’t deal with nuance, context or circumstances, then I submit that he’s the one who’s morally confused.

Finally, I have a few questions for him: Suppose, Mr. Prager, that your 13-year-old smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. Would you encourage him or her to stop? If so, why? If not, why not?

Chuck Mazursky, Westwood

Once again The Jewish Journal lends its space to Dennis Prager to spout his usual uninformed nonsense. He bemoans the fact that more American parents consider smoking to be a greater evil than cheating and the consumption of alcohol, a reversal of attitudes since the 1960s. He also expresses shock that people consider tobacco a drug.

He should be aware that the potential lethal effects of smoking were not a major source of concern to most people in the 1960s, as it is now. Also, that tobacco contains nicotine, a very potent addictive drug, and that over 400,000 Americans die each year from the effects of smoking.

I certainly do not endorse cheating or the abuse of alcohol. But, I would not minimize the very harmful effects of smoking as Prager seems to do, while admitting to the fact that he is a smoker.

Melvin Reier, Northridge

Mourning

Your July 4 cover story, “Mourning on the Fourth of July,” was one that touched me deeply emotionally. I lost my son at age 47 to cardiac arrest two years ago. Time has softened the pain, but the memory grows stronger. And the why goes unanswered. Besides reciting “Kaddish” and planting a fruit tree in my garden named “Randy’s Tree,” I became a member of Compassionate Friends. We all lost a child and console each other and meet at the University of Judaism. For more information, call (310) 889-7726.

Hyman H. Haves , Pacific Palisades

Shinui Weighs In

Tommy Lapid claimed that if Israel does not agree to release Palestinian prisoners, it would put an end to the peace process (“Shinui Weighs In on Releasing Prisoners,” July 11). How so?

The first sentence of Phase I of the “road map” requires that “the Palestinians immediately undertake an unconditional cessation of violence.” If terrorist groups unilaterally decide that an Israeli refusal to release Palestinian murderers from prison will void their temporary truce, it is they who have put an end to the peace process.

Deborah Koken, Costa Mesa

David Meyers

Why does UCLA professor David N. Myers persist in complaining that the Los Angeles Jewish community keeps him from expressing his views (“Open Debate Preferable to Blind Support,” July 18)? In the last three years, he has been quoted, published or discussed in The Jewish Journal approximately 40 times. So how is the debate no longer “open?”

Nathan D. Wirtschafter, Encino

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Hebrew U. Marks Tragic Anniversary

Leave a Comment / Worldwide / Jonathan Udren

Inside the cafeteria next to Hebrew University’s Frank Sinatra Building, Arab and Jewish students gather for lunch. Though they sit at separate tables, they chat and laugh together, seemingly carefree.

The blown-out windows have been repaired, the blackened walls repainted. Almost no trace can be seen of the bomb that killed nine — including five Americans — and injured more than 80 at the university last July 31.

Yet, directly in front of the cafeteria grows an unusual-looking tree: its leaves are hearty and vibrant but its trunk is tilted and its roots jet out of the ground at various angles.

"We have planted a living tree [as a memorial for the bombing victims] which is symbolic," Hebrew University President Menachem Magidor said. "Our roots were shaken but, just like the tree, we keep growing and going forward."

On Thursday, July 31, at 1:30 p.m., exactly a year after the bombing, Magidor, Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, other university officials and family and friends of the victims were to pause for a moment at a memorial ceremony that would include songs, poetry and speeches in memory of the tragedy — and continued hopes for real peace.

Ceremonies also were to be held in New York, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boca Raton, Fla.

Despite the challenges it has faced over the past year — mourning, replacing lost faculty, increasing security and drawing new students — Hebrew University is pushing forward.

"It’s a crazy attempt in this difficult time," Magidor said. "We’re dealing with research and major university issues while there is the feeling we are in a war zone. But we can overcome such terrible shock and still go on producing world-class education and research."

Citing the tenacious Israeli sprit, Magidor reported an increase in overall student applications this past year.

The Rothberg International School is still suffering, however: Before the bombing, the school averaged 500 to 600 undergraduate overseas students each year, while fewer than 100 came last year.

"Many schools in North America have issued a ban for their students to come here because of the fear of danger, and [fear] that they will be held responsible," said Shimon Lipsky, Rothberg’s vice provost. "Some schools have even put stumbling blocks in front of students who still wanted to come."

With the recent abatement in the intifada, there has been a 10 percent rise in enrollment for Rothberg’s upcoming summer Hebrew-language classes. The school expects the rise to be reflected in enrollment for the fall semester as well. Lipsky said there will be a big push to attract North American students for the spring 2004 semester.

"There really is a feeling that we have turned the corner and that things are getting better," he said. "We’re hoping that students will again say that Israel and Jerusalem is a place that they would like to come to."

As much as the university pushes forward, however, its roots have been shaken permanently.

Inna Zusman, 22, was one of the 80 people injured in the bombing. She woke up from a coma one month after the bombing unable to breathe or walk on her own.

"The first month and a half I was just working on breathing without a machine," she said. "Six months after, I realized that there was no progress [with my legs] and that I would have to stay in a wheelchair."

Zusman said she harbors anger toward Arabs, and says tighter security at the university could have prevented the attack.

Magidor admitted that the desire to maintain an open and pluralistic feeling on campus, for students of all races and religions, may have blinded administrators to the security risks.

"The first reaction was shock," he admitted. "We knew we were not immune, but maybe we thought naively that the campus should be immune."

The university has provided Zusman with an apartment near campus, and she plans to return to her computer studies this fall.

"Life’s surely going on but in some ways it’s a different life, not like before," she said. "But the answer is not to stay in the house and to be afraid."

The bombing also changed the life of Billy Shapira, the head of student administration. For a year and a half Shapira had served as head of human resources at the university until her sister-in-law, Levina Shapira — who was the head of student administration — died in the bombing.

"Two weeks later they asked me if I would take Levina’s place, so I sat down with my husband and my children, and with Alex [Levina’s husband]," Billy Shapira explained. "They all told me to take it, and Alex said that this way things that Levina was working for will be continued."

The two families often had spent summer weekends together in a cottage near Haifa, where Billy and Levina Shapira would discuss their goals and issues concerning the university. From these conversations, Shapira knew how eager Levina was to see a new and modern university center. Since taking her new position, Billy — who has a picture of Levina over her desk — has continued the university center project. Scheduled to open in October, the building will serve as a high-tech, central information center for current and interested students, and will provide new office space for Shapira’s department.

Despite her pain, Shapira said she is not angry with Arabs in general, only with the particular people who planted the bomb.

"We don’t hate the Arabs, we understand their needs," she said. "But they need to understand that killing us is not the way to achieve peace. We want peace, and my family, we have paid our portion for this peace."

Rwan Harb, a 19-year-old Arab student who just finished her first year at Hebrew University, agrees that violence is not the right path, but understands the terrorists’ logic.

"Killing people is not the way, and I pray for peace not just for myself, but for everyone," Harb said. "But the bombs put pressure on the Israeli government to search out peace."

Another student, Iran Ben-Ari, didn’t go to class last July 31. Three friends who did were badly injured in the blast.

Ben-Ari, 24, still describes himself as "extreme left," though many of his former political allies have changed their views since the Palestinian intifada began nearly three years ago.

"It’s our fault. We drove them to this," Ben-Ari said. "[Palestinians] are living in conditions that don’t suit human beings. They cannot leave their homes, and there is no hope. Of course blowing up bombs is not right, but the way in which Israel handles the situation is wrong also."

Yitzak Levin, an American exchange student who describes himself as a religious Zionist, was outside the cafeteria last July 31 during his first few hours on campus when the blast occurred. His determination to continue his studies in Jerusalem never wavered, Levin said, and the experience may even have strengthened his desire to be in Israel during this difficult time.

"We see from the Israelis that we can’t let terrorism dissuade us from our goals. The best thing we can do is carry on," Levin said.

That’s the lesson university administrators draw as well.

"Now we are in a crisis but eventually there will be peace, and we are still committed to that," Magidor said. "We are saddened and disappointed, but this does not change our resolve."

The American Friends of Hebrew University will remember the victims of last year’s Hebrew University bombing with a memorial service on Thursday, July 31, 7:30 p.m. at the UCLA Hillel House, 574 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles. For more information, call (310) 843-3100.

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Chance for Peace Gains Wary Support

Leave a Comment / Worldwide / James D. Besser

With the Mideast "road map" inching forward and a new Palestinian leadership gaining traction both at home and in Washington, Jewish leaders here — with the usual exceptions — are ready to give peace a chance.

That was evident at last week’s meeting between Palestinian Prime Minster Mahmoud Abbas and a delegation of 50 Jewish leaders assembled by the pro-peace process Israel Policy Forum (IPF) and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA).

However, unlike the euphoric days after the signing of the first Oslo agreement in 1993, the mood after last week’s meeting was restrained and realistic. Even peace process advocates like IPF and Americans for Peace Now seem determined to demand a measure of performance from Israel’s peace partners.

Abbas may be a breath of fresh air, as aone Jewish participant enthused, but it is far from clear whether he can fulfill his promises. And while the prime minister said many of the "right" things last week, he also dropped hints that he can’t or won’t comply with some of the most basic demands of the Bush administration’s Mideast road map, starting with a dismantling of the terror groups that have spilled so much Israeli blood.

On the right, demands for a "performance-based" peace process are often just a cover for complete opposition to any serious negotiations, because performance requirements are set impossibly high. Among more centrist groups and especially in the dovish sector of the community, a refusal to take a hard-headed look at Palestinian performance was one reason groups lost credibility when the Oslo peace process crashed and burned.

It wasn’t exactly a love fest, but Abbas impressed most of the assembled Jewish leaders, although the guest list did not include ardent foes of the peace process, such as the Zionist Organization of America, which was protesting the Abbas visit outside the White House.

The generally positive reaction among Jewish leaders mirrored the response from the White House, although congressional leaders — much more hawkish these days than the Bush administration — were less impressed.

Jewish leaders, though, were restrained in their enthusiasm. Many expressed serious doubts that Abbas will be able to stand up to efforts of groups like Hamas and to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who seems to be working full time to undercut the man he appointed to the new post of prime minister.

In the heady days after the 1993 Oslo signing, Jewish leaders were touting a new Middle East; last week they were wondering how the old Middle East would affect Abbas’ prospects for survival and whether his positive-sounding words could be matched by deeds.

Hannah Rosenthal, JCPA’s executive vice chair, said that the dominant reaction of the Jewish leaders was "relief" that there now appears to be a Palestinian leader committed to a fair settlement of the conflict.

The relief was tempered by caution. Most Jewish leaders are willing to give Abbas a chance, and most are willing to support President Bush’s efforts to bolster the Palestinian leader, including the recent White House decision to offer direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, a major shift in U.S. policy.

However, they expect to hold Abbas accountable for his actions; their support will be conditional on his performance. They also expect the administration to apply the same standard.

That poses a particularly big challenge for Jewish peace groups like IPF and Americans for Peace Now. Many of their key positions — land-for-peace negotiations, Palestinian statehood, removing most settlements — are supported by a majority of American Jews and Israelis, according to recent polls.

But these groups lost the Jewish public after the new intifada exploded on the scene in September 2000, because of their slowness in responding to the big gap between Arafat’s words and deeds, something the right had been slugging away at for years.

The peace groups sometimes gave the impression they were more intolerant of Israeli actions like settlement expansion than they were of Arafat’s unending reliance on violence as a negotiating tool. Too often, naked hope trumped clear-headed realism, something that cost these groups dearly as American Jews reacted strongly to the resumption of violence.

Judging by last week’s meeting, there is a new realism among top Jewish leaders here. That same response will be needed among pro-peace process groups.

That could be an important first step in regaining the trust of a Jewish public that still longs for a fair peace, but has become much more skeptical about Israel’s potential partners in the process.

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Sharon Loses Some Influence With Bush

Leave a Comment / Worldwide / Leslie Susser

After President Bush’s late July meetings with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers, one thing is clear: Ariel Sharon no longer will have things all his own way in Washington.

Bush pointedly expressed admiration and respect for Mahmoud Abbas, the new Palestinian Authority prime minister, whom he called "a leader of vision and courage and determination."

Still, Sharon was able to deflect U.S. pressure on Israel over the security fence it is building along the border with the West Bank and to underline Israel’s insistence that the Palestinians must crack down on terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The fact that Bush was effusive in his praise of Abbas — despite Abbas’ refusal to dismantle terrorist groups — worries the Israelis.

In his meetings with Bush and Condoleezza Rice, the White House national security adviser, Sharon made it clear that unless the Palestinians dismantle terrorist groups — as they are obliged to do in the first phase of the "road map" peace plan — Israel will not move on to the second phase. Sharon added that he doubts that the Palestinians will act without considerable U.S. pressure.

So far, such pressure has not been forthcoming. Israeli analysts believe that Bush went easy on Abbas, because, having invested so much in Middle East peacemaking, he wants to show the Palestinians that the United States is an "honest broker" that can deliver a fair deal.

Bush also hopes his overt show of support will shore up Abbas’ shaky status among the Palestinian public, analysts say. Ironically, Abbas’ weakness on the Palestinian street is proving to be his strength: Against the backdrop of that weakness, he has been able press for U.S. support and Israeli gestures of compromise.

Nowhere has the new U.S. "even-handedness" been more apparent than on the issue of the security fence. After his meeting with Abbas, Bush even adopted Palestinian terminology, calling the fence a "wall" and saying he would speak to Sharon about the route, urging changes wherever it causes hardship for Palestinians or cuts too deeply into the West Bank.

Sharon went to his meeting with Bush armed with aerial photographs showing that only 10 percent of the security barrier actually is a wall, in areas where snipers in Palestinian cities along the West Bank border could fire at drivers on a major Israeli highway. The rest of the barrier consists of an electronic fence, barbed wire obstacles and patrol roads, like the security fences along Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Jordan.

For weeks, Israeli officials at all levels have been trying to convince their U.S. counterparts of the need for a barrier to stop terrorists from infiltrating Israeli cities. In almost three years of the terrorist intifada, they note, not a single suicide bomber has successfully infiltrated from the Gaza Strip — which is fenced off — while more than 250 have entered Israel from the West Bank.

In their meetings with Sharon, Bush and Rice raised two concerns: That the fence creates political facts on the ground in advance of a territorial settlement with the Palestinians, and that it encompasses too much Palestinian land.

Sharon has said that the fence is not meant to have any political significance, and in the future, it could be moved, depending on where the final borders are drawn. Moreover, he said, the most controversial segment — a sizable bulge into the West Bank to include the city of Ariel, one of Israel’s largest in the West Bank — is not scheduled for construction until early next year, leaving time for disagreements to be resolved.

Bush did not pressure Sharon to stop construction of the fence or move it back to the Green Line — the pre- 1967 border between Israel and Jordan’s West Bank — but the two sides agreed to hold further consultations on the route, with the aim of minimizing hardship to Palestinians.

The U.S. intervention on the fence may not have stopped its construction, but it certainly ended any notion Sharon might have entertained of building a second fence along the Jordan Valley to protect Jewish settlements there.

The fear of being left with a minuscule Palestine, enclosed by fences on all sides, was one reason Abbas sought an American-led peace process. Preempting a two-fence plan is the first major achievement of the new Abbas strategy — though Sharon also can claim that the fence galvanized the Palestinians into choosing diplomacy over war.

For Sharon, though, it’s not the fence or its route that is likely to undermine the peace process. It is the Palestinians’ failure to disband terrorist groups. Getting that point across was the main objective of Sharon’s Washington visit. He told Bush that he believed the peace process would collapse in a matter of months if Abbas failed to act against the terrorist groups.

"We are concerned that this welcome quiet will be shattered any minute as a result of the continued existence of terror organizations, which the Palestinian Authority is doing nothing to eliminate or dismantle," Sharon said at a news conference.

In the news conference, Bush demanded that the Palestinian Authority undertake "sustained, targeted and effective operations to confront those engaged in terror and to dismantle terrorist capabilities and infrastructure."

However, Israeli analysts point out that, in his meeting with Abbas, Bush did not lay down a timetable for such action, nor did he specify how the terrorists should be confronted.

The question is whether, in the wake of the meetings, Bush will find ways to persuade both sides to do what is needed to advance the diplomatic process and rebuild mutual trust.

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Widows, Widowers Seek Ways to Cope

Leave a Comment / Lifecycles / Gaby Wenig

When Esther Goshen-Gottstein’s husband of 39 years died, she felt like her world had crumbled.

“The bottom had fallen out my life, as in an earthquake, when the ground on which one has stood firmly for years suddenly collapses,” she writes in “Surviving Widowhood” (Gefen, 2002). “Would I have to wait for rescue workers to pull me out and put me back on my feet?”

Unfortunately, as Goshen-Gottstein made clear in her book, there is no road map for how to get back on your feet; no emotional recovery drug that can make it all OK. Most people must navigate on their own this desolate landscape of loss. Yet there are things that they can do that can make this experience at least bearable, if not easier: join a bereavement support group, turn to rabbis for religious guidance .

“Surviving Widowhood” is one of a number of Jewish books on dealing with loss. But what makes it unique is instead of citing hard-andfast-rules about how people should act when their spouses die, she walks them through her own experiences and, using her skills as a psychologist, is able to thoughtfully analyze her own and others’ reactions to the gamut of emotions bought about by the experience of death.

For the author, dealing with the death of her husband Moshe — a well-known academic in Israel and the winner of the Israel Prize — was an ongoing process that continued long after the shiva (seven days of mourning).

The book is unflinchingly personal and she does not shy away from talking about the little things that his death affected, such as changing habits that had become second nature, like transitioning in speech from “we” to “I.” The hardship in having no one to share the minutiae of life, she finds, is one of the most difficult things to deal with.

She also writes about the role that Judaism played in her emotional recovery. Goshen-Gottstein found the moratorium provided by the shiva “allowed me to express my grief uninhibitedly. What a relief it was not only to know what to do, but also how long you have to do it.”

Yet, there are other philosophical aspects of Judaism that can help one deal with loss, said Rabbi Levi Meier, chaplain at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

“The major way that Jewish people cope is through real belief and religious imagination that the future good can already be experienced now,” Meier said, referring to the feeling one has when one recovers emotionally from the loss. For those not spiritually evolved enough to see the silver lining in a horribly dismal rain cloud, Meier says that sitting shiva and reciting ‘Kaddish’ can ease the pain.

“The recitation of ‘Kaddish’ is like an incessant dialogue with the deceased, because when you say ‘Kaddish’ you are constantly thinking about the deceased, and they become more visible as a result,” Meier said. “Also, the laws of mourning don’t let you mourn by yourself. When you sit shiva, people come to visit, people come to the funeral and when you go to shul to say “Kaddish” you need a minyan. You need to mourn with a community, so you might feel existentially alone, but still connected to other people.”

While it might be important to feel connected to the outside community, many people who are grieving feel the need to talk to others who are sharing their experiences. Many synagogues, such as Wilshire Boulevard Temple and Temple Isaiah on Pico Boulevard offer bereavement support groups where people can meet others who are going through the same thing. Typically therapists or trained counselors run these groups, and people usually attend them for one to two years.

“I think every single emotion comes into grief,” said Fredda Wasserman the adult program director at Our House, a Woodland Hills organization that provides grief support services. “From sadness, guilt and anger, to joyful memories and sometimes relief. People usually don’t know to expect all of that, and don’t know that all of that is normal. Going to a bereavement support group provides people with a lot of long-term support. People often feel that they don’t want to be a burden to someone else by having to share their feelings, but in these groups, they are talking to other people who know what they are feeling and what they need.”

“Grief is not a psychiatric disorder,” she continued. “It’s a normal reaction to natural process, and people’s feelings, emotions and responses can be normalized when they are with other people who are going through the same thing.”

“All these things are cathartic.” Meier added, “Ultimately, after you lose someone and you go through the process and do as much as you can, you actually come out of it stronger, with a greater sense of faith, a greater understanding of God and a greater understanding of life and of death.”

For more information on bereavement support groups in Los Angeles County, visit the Jewish Bereavment Project’s Web site at www.jewishbereavement.com.

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Lunch at Langer’s With Eddie and Irv

Leave a Comment / Lifecycles / Hank Rosenfeld

Some Fridays, if I’m lucky, I get to eat pastrami with Irv and Eddie at Langer’s, the great old delicatessen on Seventh and Alvarado streets across from MacArthur Park. Irv and Eddie are in their 80s, so the fight over the check begins before they even order anything.

“You were brought here!” Eddie says. He drove. He grabs Irv’s hand and looks at me. “It’s my lunch, so in that case, eat at will.”

Irv says OK, he will order caviar.

Eddie is a widower living the high life in Century City Woods. He takes gals from Palm Springs to Las Vegas for a night to see Celine Dion at Caesars Palace. Irv just got his first walker.

“I’m entering a new phase,” Irv says with a sigh. His walker has a seat. “Oh it’s very advanced,” he adds. Now he can shop at Costco with his wife, Norma. Everyone knows there’s no place to sit down at Costco. It’s amazing what happens to us.

The two men have that wonderful free-swinging easiness, a kibitzing shtick with each other that is such a kick to be around. Today’s lesson: The DNA of a Blockbuster.

“The Producers” has just arrived at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. In a new book by Gerald Nachman, “Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s” (Pantheon) impressionist Will Jordan claims Mel Brooks stole the idea that created “The Producers.” The book also says a friend of Jordan’s, Lenny Bruce, did Hitler as a character singing at an audition.

“Now Eddie,” Irv begins before the pastrami arrives. “Would you like to hear something interesting? In 1937, I came out here because Berle’s radio show was from here.” Irv used to write Milton Berle’s radio show and vaudeville act.

“So I came out,” Irv continues, “and Berle had been signed to be the star of a movie at RKO called, ‘The New Faces of 1937.’ He was a new face then. Joe Penner, Parkyakarkas [Harry Parke], Harriet Hilliard — who was Harriet Nelson — a lot of brilliant people in this picture. And the producer at RKO, a man by the name of Edward Small comes to me and says, ‘The script is no good. I want you to rewrite it.’ Now they’re paying me $750 a week for the movie, and $650 for radio. I’m the richest man that ever lived in the Bronx.”

Irv’s recall for names leaves me agog. Then Eddie starts in.

“Oh, the script he said was no good was not yours?”

“No!”

“So you rewrote it then.”

“It was by Nat Perrin and Philip Epstein, the twin brother of Julius. Both very good men. Anyway, the basic idea was from a Saturday Evening Post story about a producer on Broadway, Will Morrisey, a crook who sold more than 100 percent of the show. That’s where it started.”

“That’s the basic story.”

“That’s ‘The Producers!'”

“Yeah, I know.”

“So I wrote the movie — lousy movie, you know….”

“But the movie you wrote was not on that idea.”

“Yes it was.”

“What was it called?”

“‘New Faces of 1937!’ See the guy was gonna put on a show and make it a flop.”

“Oh, I see.”

“And it turned out to be a hit. What I’m trying to say is, all of a sudden Will Jordan says it’s his idea.”

“Anybody can say it’s their idea!”

“Anybody can say it,” Irv says. “But the guy who did it was the man who wrote the original piece in the Saturday Evening Post. George Bradshaw.”

Again with the names.

“Well, who wrote the picture with Zero Mostel?” Eddie asks.

“Mel Brooks! What I’m trying to say is he took this idea and did apparently a phenomenal job, because all the Jews in L.A. are gonna run and buy a ticket for $200.”

“My son went last week,” Eddie says. “Saw the show. He said, ‘We’re going in August.’ He said it was just wonderful and they brought in some Los Angeles shtick references in the script.”

Plates of pickles and pastrami sandwiches arrive. Irv announces: “I have a deep resentment against the whole project. As a Jew, I don’t think Hitler’s funny. I don’t think anything about Hitler is funny. But I’m in the minority.” He stops the waiter to ask, “Are there any pickles that are more done than this?”

After we eat, I say, “Anyone want to split a piece of chocolate cake? It looks so good.”

“Whaaaaat?” Eddie gulps. “Cake he wants.”

“Cake? Who eats cake in a delicatessen?” Irv asks.

“It’s almost sacrilegious to suggest cake after a corned beef sandwich,” Eddie says with a laugh.

I still have much to learn from these gentlemen. I tell them it wasn’t me, it was the Langer’s double-baked rye bread talking.

“Remember Berle’s great joke?” Irv jumps in. “Anytime somebody orders a corned beef sandwich on white bread with mayonnaise, somewhere in the world a Jew dies.”

“He would say that on stage?” I ask.

“To Jewish audiences,” Eddie says.

Hank Rosenfeld is a comedy writer who lives in Santa Monica.

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