By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent
Jewish power in America and the role of women now and in the past was the focus of the Jan. 14 Connections dinner, a fund-raiser for the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.
Although Jews have achieved power in America, “we are in danger as well,” said keynote speaker Susan Estrich. “We have all this power, but we need to use it and we need to use it as Jews,” she said. “We are still vulnerable, not still victims…and we have to use our power effectively.”
Estrich was the first female president of the Harvard Law Review and the first woman to head a national presidential campaign (Michael Dukakis). She is a law professor at the University of Southern California and the author of several books, including her most recent Sex and Power. She is also a frequent guest on national news programs such as Firing Line and 60 Minutes.
Estrich told the more than 400 women at the Women’s Division event that the first thought in her head on Sept. 11 was “Thank God Lieberman isn’t vice president.” She said she’d never forget when former U.S. president John F. Kennedy died and her mother said, “Thank God it wasn’t a Jew.”
“How many of you thought on Sept. 11 that Quebec separatists were on the plane?” Estrich asked rhetorically. She said Sept. 11 sent a message: “To be Jewish still in this world is to be hated.”
Americans knew about the absolute persecution of Jews in Europe in the 1930s, said Estrich. “Jews didn’t have power in 1939 in middle America.”
Anti-Semitism didn’t go away in the ‘40s, ‘50s or ‘60s. According to Estrich, a study was done in the 1950s to find out who ruled America and the answer was rich, white WASPs. Thirty years later, white men still dominated America, but many of them were Jews. Almost none of the Jewish men were married to Jewish women and many had assimilated completely into the non-Jewish community, said Estrich.
Ninety percent of third-generation Jews have parents who are both Jewish, said Estrich. Only 40 percent of fourth-generation Jews have parents who are both Jewish. “You raise your child as nothing, you know what they’re going to be when they grow up: nothing,” she said.
Estrich said there is nothing more frustrating than trying to raise money from women because many of them say they have to ask their husbands first. “We have enormous clout as women, but we don’t use it,” she said. “There is enormous power in this room.”
The women in the room pledged about $906,500 to the 2002 Community Campaign. The total Community Campaign now stands at $6,251,778. Approximately $4,049,993 of that is in unrestricted funds and $125,000 is for a special Israel Now campaign, to provide social services to the people of Israel during this difficult time.
During the course of the evening, Yossi Amrani, consul general of the State of Israel to the Pacific Northwest, congratulated Betty Lou Treiger for her achievement in being awarded the Althea Stroum Woman of Distinction Award. Treiger was honored with the award for her volunteer career with the Women’s Division and with many Jewish and other community organizations. Her daughter, Karen Treiger, followed Amrani in congratulating Betty Lou.
“She just did all the time,” said Karen Treiger. “She teaches us by doing.”
“She cares deeply for her friends, as they do for her,” she said. “Mom, I’m so proud to be your daughter.”
Althea Stroum presented the award to Betty Lou, reading a poem she wrote in Betty Lou’s honor. “We salute you, Betty Lou, as 2002 woman of the year,” said Stroum. Following her introduction, the attendees gave Betty Lou a standing ovation.
The theme of this dinner is memories, said Betty Lou. “We have memories of events, we have memories of places, but mostly we have memories of our families.”
Betty Lou gave attendees some information about her family’s background going back to Seattle in the 1870s. Her children are fifth-generation Seattle Jews. She said she remembered the stories her grandmother told her about her ancestors and the great Seattle fire. One of her more recent memories included a trip three years ago to a small village in Germany where she found the gravestone of her great-grandfather in an old Jewish cemetery.
American Jews are a better, stronger community today, said Betty Lou. “We have the strength to overcome adversity,” she said. “Thank you for being here with me this evening and sharing this wonderful honor.”
“Just as we are our ancestors, we are our children,” she said, in closing.
Community campaign chair Patty Lazarus reported: “This is a difficult time to be a campaign chair…. This year, the needs are even greater.”
“There are many Jews in the world that need our help,” said Lazarus. Two thirds of the funds raised stay in the greater Seattle area, to feed the hungry and house the homeless, she said. Half of every dollar contributed is spent on basic human needs.
Rivy Kletenik presented the D’var Torah and Hamotzi that night. Kletenik urged attendees to “remember this day.”
“Let us pray that we will be graced with a degree of forgetfulness,” said Kletenik. “Our memory must be selective and discerning.”
Connections, hosted by the Women’s Division of the Jewish Federation, is the largest annual gathering of Jewish women in the Seattle area, said Event Chair Tina Novick. The theme of the evening was “Connecting to Our Jewish Memory.”
“As Jews, memory is especially important,” said Novick.