Page 3-THE NEWS-August, 1988
Opinions and Commentaries
The Poor Among Us By Rabw Robert a. Seigd Gen. Zach’s Presentation Did Not Help
This sermon was delivered at Temple Beth El V’Shalom on June 24.
A rabbi ascended the bima
on Rosh Hashana at his new
congregation, and delivered an
eloquent sermon on TIKKUN
OLAM, on social justice and
the need for the Jew to be in
volved with the problems of
the world around us. The con
gregants were stimulated by
his golden words. The follow
ing Rosh Hashana the rabbi
delivered a sermon on TIK
KUN OLAM, on social justice,
that was every bit as magnifi
cent as the year before. In fact,
it was the SAME sermon he
had preached the year before,
and he delivered it precisely as
he had the first time, word for
word.
The members wondered but
said nothing. Congregations,
you see, are famous for their
compassion. It happened again
the third year, and once more
the following year. All agreed
that it was a magnificent ser
mon, but, after all, they had
now heard it FOUR times.
Finally, the Temple presi
dent paid the rabbi a visit.
“Rabbi,” he began, “that sure
ly is a magnificent sermon on
Tikkun 01am.” “Thank you,”
replied the rabbi. “Yes,” said
the president, warming to his
task, “that truly is a magnifi
cent sermon, and we have been
deeply moved by it. But some
members have mentioned to
me, and I myself have been
wondering — Rabbi, don’t you
think it’s time to preach
another sermon?”
“Do you reaUy think so?”
asked the rabbi. “You see, I
have been waiting until we
DID something about the first
one!”
Our religion is not one of
pronouncements or catechisms
or creed; Judaism is not
centered around theology or
philosophy or concepts. Ours
is a heritage of DOING, of act
ing, of observing command
ments. One worships God with
what we DO, not solely with
what we pray. Worship of God
includes the way we treat all of
God’s creatures. The very
word “halacha” — Jewish Law
— literally means the way a
Jew should walk — the way a
Jew should live his life. For us,
the words have no meaning
without action. What we do is
what we really believe. Just
look at anyone’s actions and
you will know what that per
son believes.
I was reminded of that
Jewish value just this week. I
sat over the newspaper this
past Tuesday morning with
my first cup of coffee, and I
felt a wave of sadness. 1 was
reading the results of our
County Conmiissioners’ ap
propriations for 1988-1989, ap
propriations that show what
they truly believe, where they
really stand. It hurt to realize
that in such a beautiful city as
Charlotte, in a community
that is truly one of the nation’s
finest, our County Commis
sioners have turned their
backs on the most needy resi
dents of our area.
• $300,000 was cut from
Charlotte Memorial Hospital’s
program of health care for the
poor.
• Half of the money needed
to establish a shelter for the
homeless was turned down.
• 43% of the money needed
to assist AIDS patients and
their families was rejected.
• Planned Parenthood was
dropped as a recipient.
But don’t fear, the Commis
sioners showed us where they
really stood.
• $100,000 was appropri
ated to sponsor the first sport
ing event in the new coliseum.
Frankly, I’m embarrassed.
As a citizen of this county and
as a Jew, I’m not only embar
rassed, I’m outraged. The
homeless, the poor, the seri
ously iU, the main agency
assisting teenagers to avoid
becoming parents before they
themselves are grown, are all
rejected by our communal
leaders — who stood instead
for the virtues of a sporting
event.
As Charlotte strives to
become a “world class” city
with skyscrapers competing
with the best, with major
league athletic teams, with a
new arts center, with a newly
forming image, we must at the
same time struggle to see that
Charlotte does not lose its
soul.
Each week we read letters
referring to the homeless on
our streets as “worthless
bums.” Granted some prob
ably are; but to paint all the
homeless with that canard is
unworthy of believers in God.
The homeless problem is a new
problem. The hard core home
less — the true bums who are
out on the streets because
they want to be — are few in
number and have always been
with us. That they were invisi
ble for so many years only il
lustrates how small their num
ber is. Of the vast majority of
the homeless today many are
individuals with mental prob
lems who have been thrown in
to the street by the federal
government’s callous termina
tion of programs and facilities
for the mentally ill during
these past few years. The
others are individuals and
families who always barely
scraped along, staying one
notch above abject poverty
and who, in this society of
plenty, have been caught in
the increasing separation be
tween the “haves” and the
“have-nots.” There are many
out on the streets who pray
each night for a chance to
start over.
And as the poor in America
grow — and they are growing
— this is not the time to
withdraw needed services
from the most needy. Do you
have a medical insurance card
in your waUet? Think what
your life would be like if you
had NO medical insurance,
none at aU, and you didn’t
have the financial resources to
get adequate medical help.
The number of medically un
insured in our own county is
staggering. Now is not the
time to withdraw medical ser
vices from them.
Each year more babies are
having babies. Teenagers and
those hardly into their teens
are becoming parents before
they fully understand the
cause of pregnancy. They cer
tainly do not understand the
implications. The vast majori
ty are not from Southeast
Charlotte. They are financial
ly poor and poorly educated
and they are populating our
society with unwanted babies
because so many people and
institutions are fighting to
keep them ignorant. Planned
Parenthood has had the guts
to speak out against that ig
norance, and now they, too,
have faUen from grace.
My friends, the purveyors of
narrow mindedness, the per-
petuators of ignorance, have
taken the upper hand in Meck
lenburg County. It must end.
Those who speak out against
the poor in the name of re
ligion must be stopped. Those
who mustered political clout to
force their repressive ideas on
us all in the name of religion
must be stopped. Those who
turn their backs on the pain of
God’s children in the naihe of
religion must be stopped. We
have been silent too long.
See POOR page 9
By Rabbi Marc H. Wilson
Gen. Freddy Zach’s presen
tation at the recent, Jewish
Community Forum was deep
ly disturbing. He delivered ^
the predictable rhetoric and
cliches that take off from the
dubious premise that Israel
must be committed to the
long-term occupation of Gaza
and the West Bank and that it
thus has every right to exer
cise extraordinary means to
contain and pacify a bellig
erent populace.
Gen. Zach made three points
that deserve our special
scrutiny. They underscore a
growing moral obliviousness
that threatens to gut our
Homeland of the very values
and ideeds that have been its
raison d’etre:
(1) Gen. Zach was asked
pointedly about Israel holding
over 5,000 Palestinians in
detention camps indefinitely,
without indictment or trial. He
would not address the issue
forthrightly, but instead
boasted about how well the de-
t£unees were being treated
under Israeli authority. 1
could not help but muse about
how one day a crackpot regime
might throw a “suspected
subversive” (ACLU Board
member) like me into a deten
tion camp and then tell me to
shut up, stop complaining,
because I was being fed the
same food as my guards.
Boasting about the civility of
a detention camp is not an
answer for why thousands of
people — even suspectedly
bad people — must be in
carcerate outside the due pro
cess of law.
Gen. Zach displayed similar
obtuseness when he was ques
tioned about the Israeli policy
of establishing new settle
ments on the West Bank.
Rather than addressing the
question of the policy’s
ultimate wisdom or prudence,
he defended the decision as
one that had garnered a broad
base of Israeli political sup
port. I was outraged to hear a
fellow Jew of considerable
power and influence glibly
obscure the critical moral
distinction between “majority
rules” (which is political reali
ty) and a majority determining
that which is ultimately right
(which we know, bitterly, is
certainly not always the case).
While Gen. Zach repeatedly
protested that he was not
speaking “as a politician,” it
was clear that the Israeli posi
tion was being represented by
a man who could address these
troubling situations only in
terms of power politics.
(2) When Gen. Zach was
questioned about the need for
more direct negotiations with
the Palestinians, he took the
opportunity to chide our
“American business mentali
ty” that demands that every
problem have a quick black-
and-white solution. Frankly, I
was surprised that some of the
businesspeople in Gorelick
HaU didn’t make him eat his
words. As I looked around the
audience, I realized more than
ever that one cannot possibly
be a successful American busi
nessperson without being a
tough and skillful negotiator.
Any one of ten or fifteen
businesspeople present could
have given Gen. Zach a few
basic lessons in the delicate art
of negotiation.
“We can’t negotiate with
people who demand nothing
less than our total surrender,”
Gen. Zach sedd. Naturally,
that’s what they demand.
That’s what we demand, too.
Any savvy businessperson
will tell you that the opening
shot in any negotiation is the
demand of the other side’s
total surrender, whether it be
in buying a house or in arrsmg-
ing the terms of a peace trea
ty. This is known as “mating
C£ill.” Only after “mating call”
can the parties really sit down
and start talking “tachlis.”
The idea that Israel will wait
(and wait) to start negotia
tions until a spokesman for an
angry, radicalized people
comes along one day who is
“kosher” enough to meet our
high standards, creates a
Catch-22 that borders on the
most ludicrous kind of
sophistry. We forget in the
midst of aU our passion that
peace is something we must
make with our mortal enemies,
not our friends.
(3) The only time that Gen.
Zach waxed truly romantic
was when he admonished us
that Jews must all “speak
with one voice.” That had a
nice ring to it. The only prob-
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