Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 29, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 18, 1996 Page: 10 of 24
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TEXAS JEWISH POST, DALLAS, THURSDAY, JULY IB, 1996 ■ IN OUR 50TH YEAR!
Wash Watch
continued from page 4
integral part of every aspect
of synagogue life? That’s
the issue being addressed at
this conference ”
Sarrae Crane, director of
social action and public pol-
icy for United Synagogue,
agreed
“Over the past two years
we’ve seen a tremendous in-
crease in interest in our con-
gregations,” she said. “We
really saw that when the
black churches started to
burn; our phones were ring-
ing nonstop because people
wanted to help respond to
this problem."
She said that the two
movements agree on enough
social issues to forge an on-
going partnership—al-
though they disagree on ho-
mosexuality.
Ackerman Goes to Bat for
Banned Jewish Activist
The flap about the ban-
ning of American Jewish
Committee director David
Harris from Russia is appar-
ently far from over.
Last month, Harris, who
organized the massive 1987
March for Soviet Jewry in
Washington, was denied a
visa to visit Russia to attend
a conference in St. Peters-
burg
Recently, Rep. Gary Ack-
erman (D-N.Y.) shot off a
letter to the elusive Russian
President Boris Yeltsin crit-
icizing his government’s de-
cision.
"This action taken by it-
self is troubling,” Ackerman
wrote. "However, it coin-
cides with your govern-
ment’s recent decision to
suspend the Jewish Agen-
cy’s legal right to operate in
Russia, as well as your si-
lence on widely reported in-
flammatory comments by
Gen. Alexander Lebed per-
taining to religion in Rus-
sia.”
All of that, Ackerman said,
“present a less-than-pleas-
ant picture of the official
government attitude to-
wards Jews, in particular,
and of the policy toward
religious tolerance, in gen-
eral.”
Relations Committee, Rep.
Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.) and
Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.)
Harris’ exclusion also
came up in the debate over
Russia’s President Boris Yeltsin came out of
hiding Tuesday to keep his meeting with Vice
President Al Gore.
Ackerman got some
high-powered co-signers to
his letter, including Rep.
Ben Gilman (R-N Y ), chair
of the House International
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renewal of the Lautenbcrg
amendment, the law origi-
nally passed to make it eas-
ier for Jews in the former
Soviet Union to win refu-
gee status. The visa denial,
Jewish backers of the
amendment argued, is proof
that Russia has a long way
to go in its transformation
into a genuine democracy.
Originally no response
from the Kremlin, where
Yeltsin was supposed to
meet this week with Vice
President Al Gore Yeltsin
was reportedly resting in a
sanitarium However, after
the news surfaced, an im-
mediate meeting was held
late Tuesday between the
two.
Defense of Marriage Act
Passes House
Last week’s overwhelm-
ing passage of the Defense
of Marriage Act in the
House produced a variety
of reactions in a Jewish com-
munity that is divided on
the morality of homosexu-
ality.
The Religious Action
Center of Reform Judaism,
the Washington outpost of
the Union of American He-
brew Congregations
(UAHC), criticized the
House action and asked the
Senate to reject the law.
which would allow states to
refuse to recognize same-
sex marriages legitimized in
other states.
The marriage measure,
which is being promoted
heavily by groups like the
Christian Coalition, is "un-
constitutional. unnecessary
and morally wrong." said
Rabbi David Saperstein, di-
rector of the RAC. “This
will surely turn out to be
about gay bashing.”
Agudath Israel of Ameri-
ca, which submitted Senate
testimony last week sup-
porting the legislation, in-
sisted that the movement to
allow same-sex marriages
is “extremely dangerous"
for American society.
“Proponents of same-sex
marriages seek to change
not only statutory law, but
also the very nature of a
social institution that...has
proven its worth as an agent
of social stability and his-
torical continuity,” said
David Zwiebel, Agudah’s
director of government af-
fairs
Gay-rights groups and a
number of Jewish organiza-
tions are tacitly conceding
that the bill is now unstop-
pable; the Senate is prepared
to act quickly, and Presi-
dent Bill Clinton has indi-
cated he would probably not
exercise his veto.
Instead, these groups
hope to add the Employ-
ment Nondiscrimination
Act, which prohibits dis-
crimination in employment
on the basis of sexual orien-
tation, tothe legislation; the
American Jewish Commit-
tee has spearheaded a group
of ten religious groups urg-
ing legislators todojust that.
But gay and lesbian ac-
tivists privately agree that
political factors will make
that proposal an extraordi-
narily hard sell.
“The feeling is that the
Defense of Marriage act is
going to go through no mat-
ter what," said a leading
Jewish activist here. "The
strategy is to see if we can
attach something positive to
this terrible piece of legisla-
tion But frankly, it’s going
to be a very difficult fight.”
Rep. Cardin to Jewish
Groups: Help Prosecute
Bosnian War Criminals
A prominent Jewish con-
gressman is encouraging
Jewish organizations to get
more involved in the effort
to bring war criminals in the
tormer Yugoslavia to jus-
tice.
Rep BenCardin(D-Md.)
recently returned from a ses-
sion of the parliamentary as-
sembly of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation
in Europe. Cardin is a mem-
ber of the American delega-
tion to the group, which is
charged with monitoring the
1975 Helsinki human rights
accords.
“We’re trying to focus the
international community on
the fact that our commitment
to hold those accused of war
crimes accountable has to be
a high priority,” Cardin said
in an interview. "The best
way to ensure the peace and
prevent future atrocities is to
demonstrate clearly that war
crimes will not be tolerated."
But that process is proving
difficult in Bosnia, where ef-
forts to apprehend several
high-profile figures accused
of war crimes, including Bos-
nian Serb leader Radovan
Karadzic, have been stymied.
NATO forces implement-
ing last year’s Dayton accords
have, so far, refused to ac-
tively seek out Karadzic and
others.
"Two actions are needed,”
Cardin said. “First, we need
to encourage the various
countries participating in this
process to help the tribunal
more. Secondly, we need a
commitment that the interna-
tional forces now in Bosnia
should help pick these peo-
ple up. That’s been a prob-
lem; they’re not doing it But
they say they will, if given a
mandate by the participating
nations.”
Jewish groups in thiscoun-
try, he said, need to get more
involved.
"Yugoslavia represents
the first war crimes tribunal
since Nuremberg," he said
"The Jewish community,
with our special sensitivity
to the need to hold people
accountable, can have an es-
pecially big impact on
whether our country makes
this a high priority."
The Commission on Se-
curity and Cooperation in
Europe was created to pro-
mote human rights in East-
ern Europe; it was a major
part of the effort to protect
Soviet Jews.
"It’s not by accident that
the same mechanism that
protected Soviet Jews is now
helping deal with these tem-
ble war crimes/’Cardin said.
"This is perfectly consistent
with its mandate.”
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 29, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 18, 1996, newspaper, July 18, 1996; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth754865/m1/10/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .