While his Democratic rivals marched in New York’s “Salute to Israel” parade Sunday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson attended a luncheon meeting with selected Jewish leaders.
The meeting was arranged by R. Peter Straus, a communications executive, along with Barry Feinstein, an official of the Teamsters union, and Theodore Kheel, a labor mediator.
Jackson had previously declined invitations to meet with Jewish leaders prior to Tuesday’s New York primaries from both the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.
Officials from neither organization were present at the noon meeting, which included 50 community leaders who were described by one participant as “uncommitted.”
Most were Jewish. Prominent among them were political activist Mark Green; Rabbi Daniel Syme, vice president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations; and Rabbi Gilbert Klaperman, president of the Synagogue Council of America, the rabbinic umbrella organization.
According to Green, president of the Democracy Project think tank in New York, the meeting was “honest, blunt, conciliatory.”
Green, who described himself as politically neutral, said Jackson was queried on a wide range of issues of concern to Jewish voters. “Jackson was very eloquent in describing how after his blunders of 1984 he’s reached out a hand of friendship to the Jews.”
When he last ran for president, in 1984, Jackson angered Jewish voters with an off-hand reference to New York as “Hymietown” and by refusing to repudiate Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan, who has called Judaism a “gutter religion” and Adolf Hitler a “great” man.
PRESSED ABOUT FARRAKHAN
Green said Jackson was pressed about Farrakhan, about whom the candidate has said that he disavows the sin, but not the sinner.
According to Green, Jackson said that if he did not believe in forgiveness, he could never get along in white America, where he has been called “nigger.”
The candidate reiterated that he has had no recent contact with Farrakhan, and that only Farrakhan benefits whenever the subject is brought up.
Jackson also said, in response to a question by Green, that as president he would instruct his ambassador to the United Nations to vote against any resolution equating Zionism and racism.
Klaperman said he was not “completely satisfied” with Jackson’s responses, particularly pertaining to the Middle East and his relationship with the Jewish community.
Jackson supports an international peace conference and embraced Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat in 1979. But in an April 10 appearance on the CBS News program “Face the Nation,” he said he would not sit down with the PLO leader again.
‘NOT GETTING THE RIGHT ADVICE’
Klaperman was particularly disappointed that Jackson did not meet with any major Jewish organization in New York. “I asked him if as president, would he only meet selected groups,” said Klaperman. “I told him that I don’t think he has the temperature of the Jewish community, and that he is not getting the right advice.”
In a telephone interview Monday, Straus dismissed as “absolute baloney” the complaints of some Jewish leaders that the meeting had been purposely scheduled to conflict with the Israel parade.
“Four people who were either marshalls or were involved in the parade managed to fit it in,” said Straus. He added that in a campaign, “there’s always something going on.”
Michael Miller, executive director of the JCRC, said Jackson “sidestepped” Jewish leadership while “siphoning off” some of those who would otherwise have attended the parade. Miller said that despite the meeting, Jackson continued to demonstrate his “unwillingness to meet with Jewish leaders.”
The candidates wrapped up their final weekend of campaigning with appeals to ethnic groups around New York City. On Monday, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis planned to stump in upstate New York, while Sen. Albert Gore of Tennessee was scheduled for an afternoon appearance on the Phil Donahue show.
On Sunday night, Gore received a standing ovation from the 1,700 people attending the National Council of Young Israel’s 76th anniversary banquet.
Gore reminded members of the Modern Orthodox movement of his “100 percent voting record on Israel” as a senator and member of the House of Representatives, even when he represented a congressional district with a negligible Jewish population.
Addressing charges that he has been pandering to New York’s Jewish community, Gore exclaimed, “Now that I’m here, in New York City, should I change my views? I will not.”
As he has done repeatedly this week, Gore referred to what some Democrats, opposed to Jackson, are concerned will be a voting split between Democratic supporters of Dukakis, the clear front-runner going into Tuesday’s primary, and Gore, who is a distant third behind Jackson.
“When given a choice between hope and fear, choose the path of hope,” said Gore.
For Rabbi Joseph Rosenbluh of the Young Israel of Vanderveer Park synagogue in Brooklyn, who pressed through the crowd to pump the candidate’s hand, “fear” clearly meant Dukakis, while Gore represented hope.
“Others may change their stands, but Gore has a history of supporting Jewish causes,” said Rosenbluh.
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