Jewish leaders have expressed their shock and grief at the death last week of Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.), who had close ties with the Jewish community and was both a strong supporter of Israel and an ardent advocate for Soviet Jewry.
Heinz, 52, was killed shortly after noon last Thursday, when a light plane he was in collided with a helicopter over Merion, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb. The accident occurred near an elementary school, killing seven, including two schoolchildren.
“The death of Sen. John Heinz is a great tragedy for the country and the Jewish community,” Shoshana Cardin, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and Malcolm Hoenlein, its executive director, said in a statement.
“He was an outstanding legislator, a true patriot, and a great friend of Israel,” they said.
Sholom Comay, president of the American Jewish Committee, said Heinz was “a strong champion of Israel in the Senate, working to assure that Israel received vital foreign aid, diplomatic and moral support from our country.”
But it was the senator’s efforts on behalf of Soviet Jewry that he will perhaps be most remembered by the Jewish community.
Cardin, who is also chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, and Martin Wenick, its executive director, took note of this in a telegram of condolence to Heinz’s widow, Teresa, and their three sons.
“As we rejoice at the numbers of Soviet Jews who are now leaving the USSR to live their lives in freedom and dignity in the basic human right of free emigration, we recall Sen. Heinz’s unstinting devotion to their cause,” they said.
“We trust, too, that many refuseniks, including Maria and Vladimir Slepak, whose plight Sen. Heinz so eloquently brought to the attention of both houses of Congress, will always remember his advocacy on their behalf.”
WEALTHY MAN WITH A ‘BIG HEART’
Micah Naftalin, national director of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, also recalled that Heinz’s staff was one of the most helpful in Congress to Soviet Jewry advocates.
But it was not only on Israel and Soviet Jewry that he supported the Jewish community, according to Mark Talisman, Washington director of the Council of Jewish Federations.
“He has been extremely close to our community on the domestic side as well as on Soviet Jewry,” Talisman said.
Heinz had a “big heart” and was “a man of enormous wealth who chose to commit his life to public service,” Talisman said.
Comay pointed to Heinz’s support of the proposed civil rights bill, aimed at decreasing racial, religious and sexual discrimination in the workplace, and his leadership in developing and monitoring programs that assist the needy.
Heinz “also played a key role in the fight against bigotry, racism and anti-Semitism as a supporter of the federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act,” Comay said.
“I knew John Heinz personally and recall his commitment to justice, dedication to principle and willingness to take leadership,” he said.
Heinz was heir to the H.J. Heinz Co. and worked for the Pittsburgh-based firm before being elected to the House of Representatives in a 1971 special election and then to the Senate in 1976.
His death was especially tragic to the Jewish communities in Pennsylvania.
Nicholas Lane, chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Committee of the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh, described Heinz as a “tower of strength” on the Soviet Jewry issue.
“The senator always made a deliberate point to push the Soviet Jewry cause when meeting with Soviet officials, at a time when it was not a very popular or prominent cause,” Lane said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
