Jewish Leaders Speak Out on Capitol Hill
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13–They soldiered onto Capitol Hill armed only with their political ideologies and Jewish faith, hoping to achieve religious and economic goals through the support of their Connecticut delegation.
“We are here to let them know that the Jewish community cares about what’s going on in legislation,” said Dr. Tamara Goodman, a 27-year-old dentist who traveled earlier this week with 14 other members of the Jewish Community of Greater Hartford to participate in a biennial conference known as Washington 13.
The three-day event, hosted by the United Jewish Communities Young Leadership (UJC) at the Washington Hilton, gave Goodman and nearly 2,000 adult Jewish leaders the opportunity to sit with their states’ congressional members to discuss critical social and political issues they believe to be of Jewish communal concern. The UJC is an umbrella organization representing 189 Jewish federations and 400 independent communities, which annually raises $2 billion for special projects and endowment funds.
Connecticut Democratic Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, the first Jewish candidate nominated for Vice President, called the Greater Hartford delegation the “future” in terms of meaningful political advocacy.
“I strongly support their views on combating terrorism, standing by Israel and gaining Russia’s commitment to religious freedom,” said Lieberman, who was also the conference’s keynote speaker last Sunday. “In addition, I am pleased that my legislative initiatives to encourage charitable giving are consistent with the [Jewish Community Relations Council’s] emphasis on federal support for community-based services.
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., said the Greater Hartford federation’s “commitment and leadership on a wide variety of issues” also impressed him.
The group solicited support from Lieberman, Dodd and Representatives John B. Larson, D-1st, and Nancy L. Johnson, R-6th, on several local and international initiatives, including restoration and expansion of community-based services for seniors, continued religious freedom in the Russian Federation and the isolation of terrorist groups in Israel as well as the preservation of American-Israeli relations.
According to West Hartford resident Scott Marglois, 28, Connecticut must focus on the care services available to its growing elderly population, especially through programs such as the Naturally Occurring Retiring Communities (NORCs), which allow the elderly to stay in their homes
Marglois and the state federation’s leader, West Hartford Mayor Jonathan A. Harris, said NORCs offer seniors the option to remain in their housing complexes without uprooting them. The program, which provides home and personal care services, is a “cost-effective solution” for the elderly who are otherwise faced with expensive long-term care at nursing facilities, Harris said.
Connecticut’s average nursing home can cost upwards of $81,400 annually, according to David Guttchen, director of Connecticut Partnerships for Long-Term Care, which is a state government-affiliated program working with the private health care insurance industry.
“We are involved in a war,” said Johnson, who is also the chairwoman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health. “There have never been so many troops on the field in Connecticut seeing who is going to pay for [health care].”
Because of other states’ similar concerns, Johnson said, Congress is looking more often at systematic reforms, such as certificate programs that could aid workers who are seeking higher-paying jobs, as well as ways to improve case management on an individual basis.
Marglois said he is especially backing NORCs because it is upsetting to see his grandparents forced to live apart after 50 years of marriage.
“My grandmother is at the Hebrew Home [& Hospital] in West Hartford, and my grandfather is living at Chatfield [a nursing home] near the West Farms Mall,” Marglois said. “It’s really sad at this point that they can’t live together after·so long.”
Mayor Harris and Cara R. Youssiem, also of West Hartford, called on Congress to support legislation that would increase the Social Service Block Grants program’s spending to $2.8 billion from the current $1.7 billion.
The federal funds, Youssiem said, have been cut in the past seven years, which has hampered many Connecticut social services, including youth-at-risk programs, adult and child protective services and employment training for immigrants and refugees.
“The programs are essential,” she emphasized, “not only to Jewish services, but to social services in general.”
Other participants focused on needs outside of Connecticut but that were also of great concern to many of the 101,000 Jews in the state, constituting 3.1 percent of the state’s total population.
According to Dave Mathog, 29, legislation must focus on the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which denies equal trade status to Russia and other countries that restrict their citizens’ right to emigrate. Congress is considering dropping Russia from the amendment’s provisions because of liberalization of its laws on Jewish emigration.
“We offer you as Jews and as Americans the understanding that Russia’s changed,” Mathog said. “We welcome the next step, but in doing this we ask Congress to understand the goals of the amendment and allow it not to be changed.”
The UJC group noted that Israel still suffers from terrorist attacks on those who follow Judaism.
“[Israelis] feel much stronger when we have the American nation behind us,” said Shy Shalom Alon, a student from Afula, Israel, who joined the Connecticut constituents to promote peace in the Middle East.
Alon and West Hartford resident Jeff Landal, 34, urged Johnson and the other congressional leaders to support President George W. Bush’s $2.7 billion economic and military budget package against terrorism and to ask the president to include several militant factions of Palestinian extremists on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtin, R-Fla, have circulated a letter within Congress that solicits the President’s condemnation of three groups – Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade, the Tanzim militias and Force 17 – that many Jewish-American and pro-Israeli communities say have committed the most brutal attacks on Israeli cities and towns.
To Israelis like Alon, the deliberate victimization of Jews often has a personal impact..
“In 1994, a suicide bomber blew up a car next to a bus. The bus driver was my uncle – he died in that bus,” Alon told Johnson. “It is very tough in Israel right now. Every day is another incident. People are dying.”
Johnson said she understands the devastation currently wracking the Middle East, but she also asked the Jewish young leaders to be patient with legislation and not to prejudge the countries surrounding Israel because America needs the region’s united support in eliminating terrorist activities.
“Congress needs to show a real interest on backing the administration” on these kinds of decisions, she said.
Youssiem, who may be granted dual citizenship from the United States and Canada, her native country, said she will consider her congressional members’ voting records if she is able to vote by the November elections.
“Americans do not realize how privileged they are: the opportunities, the freedoms, the right to vote. It’s endless,” Youssiem said. However, she will not take her ballot lightly if given the chance to vote. I’m not going to take [political issues] for granted,” she said.
Published in The Waterbury Republican-American, in Waterbury, Connecticut.
