Obtituary

Jews recall Moynihan as an ally on Israel, fight for Soviet Jewry
By Matthew E. Berger

Washington, March 27 (JTA) — Daniel Patrick Moynihan once
received a $1,000 political contribution from a woman who wrote
that she would have doubled the amount if only Moynihan would
spend less time speaking out against the infamous “Zionism Equals
Racism” resolution in the United Nations.

Moynihan, who had been U.S. ambassador to the United Nations,
sent the check back, noting that “no one is going to dictate to me
my conscience.”

Moynihan, who died Wednesday at age 76 of complications from
surgery, is being remembered in the Jewish world as a tireless
fighter for some of the key issues of his time, including Soviet
Jewry and the status of Jerusalem.

The four-term Democratic senator from New York, who retired in
2001, was viewed as more than a legislator; he was a frequent
consultant to the Jewish community on how to advance its political
agenda.

“He had a whole perspective that was fascinating on these issues,”
said David Luchins, who served as Moynihan’s adviser for 20
years. “What he didn’t know about, he asked about.”

Moynihan was born in Tulsa, Okla. on March 16, 1927, and moved
to New York shortly thereafter. He studied at the London School of
Economics before starting his political career on the New York
mayoral campaign of Robert F. Wagner.

After earning a doctorate in international relations at Syracuse
University, he worked at the Labor Department and later served as
ambassador to India.

By the time Moynihan became the Ford administration’s envoy to
the United Nations in 1975, he already was well known for his
policy statements on minorities and urban affairs in previous White
House administrations. But it was at the United Nations that he first
came to the attention of the Jewish community, as he battled the
resolution denigrating Zionism that the international body had
approved.

“He was a scholar, he thought that words mattered,” Luchins said.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who served with Moynihan in
Congress, said the fight against the U.N. resolution will be the
senator’s legacy.

“I think he was genuinely shocked and outraged at the reality of
anti-Semitism in the United Nations,’ Nadler said. “I think it was an
issue of right and wrong for him.”

Luchins said Moynihan went “door to door” on the issue at the
United Nations. His outspokenness led to tensions with Secretary of
State Henry Kissinger and his departure from the New York post
after only eight months.

He continued to speak out against the U.N. resolution after being
elected to the Senate in 1976. It ultimately was repealed in 1991.

Moynihan also became intimately involved in the fight for the rights
of Jews in the Soviet Union. Jewish leaders said Moynihan often
attended Soviet Jewry rallies in New York, and would meet directly
with Jewish leaders on the issue, rarely delegating to his staff.

“For him, it came down to inequities among people,” said Zeesy
Schnur, the former executive director of the Greater New York
Coalition for Soviet Jewry. “He couldn’t understand why a country
would spend so much time, energy and money to hamper a basic
human right for people.”

But Moynihan also knew when to stop. He convinced Jewish
leaders to take a two-year hiatus from the rallies as a gesture to the
new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, who had shown a
willingness to take action on the plight of Soviet Jews.

Moynihan was a great advocate for Israel in the Senate as well
championing a bill to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel
Aviv to Jerusalem.

The bill passed with much fanfare in 1995, but presidents have
consistently avoided making the change, claiming that the move
would hurt America’s status as a negotiator in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.

Moynihan’s relations with the Jewish community centered on
foreign affairs, but also involved domestic policy. Moynihan, who
chaired the Senate Finance Committee, pushed social security and
welfare reform, and worked with Jewish leaders on education
issues.

“I just think that he had a kind of kinship with us, not only as Jewish
people but as people who had ideals and concepts of what the
world should be like,” said Bernice Tannenbaum, a former
president of Hadassah and chair of the World Zionist Organization.

Many recalled that Moynihan fought hard for the big issues of the
day, but also took personal interest in the plight of individual Jews.

Luchins remembers Moynihan calling the U.S. Postal Service to
advocate on behalf of a New York postman who had become more
religious and no longer wanted to work on the Sabbath. He told the
bureaucracy that no one should have to choose between their
conscience and their profession.

When traveling abroad, Moynihan often tried to visit local Jewish
communities and synagogues. On a visit to Morocco in 1990,
Moynihan was shown a copy of the first Jewish prayerbook printed
in the country, and it later was given to him as a present.

“He was in a state of shock,” unsure what to do with such a
significant item, Luchins said. He later presented it to the late
Lubavitch rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, on his 90th
birthday.

Moynihan is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, three children and 
two grandchildren.