50 No. 78 JUSTICE The petition attracted widespread support in the Jewish community. Prominent signatories included Miles Lerman, past chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Rabbi Prof. Arthur Hertzberg, a longtime leader of Jewish organizations. The (Orthodox) Rabbinical Council of America and the (Conservative) Rabbinical Assembly both called on their member-rabbis to write letters to Secretary Powell in support of the Lantos initiative. The appeal to the Assembly’s membership came from the sons of three Conservative rabbinical students who, in 1943, had organized a campus-based activist group to publicize the plight of Europe’s Jews.18 It was especially important to demonstrate to the Bush administration that the fight against antisemitism was of concern not solely to the Jewish community, but to a broad cross-section of prominent Americans, Republicans as well as Democrats. The signatories on the petition included prominent Republicans such as the former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Jeane Kirkpatrick; former housing secretary and vice-presidential nominee Jack Kemp; former U.S. Senator Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.); and the Bush administration’s own Richard Perle, who until earlier that year had chaired the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board. Prominent Democrats on the petition included former Clinton administration officials such as CIA Director R. James Woolsey; National Security Adviser Anthony Lake; the envoy for Holocaust issues, Stuart Eizenstat; and former State Department officials Richard Schifter and Abraham Sofaer. Leading Christian supporters included the presidents of the Union Theological Seminary and Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, and deans of the Yale University Divinity School and the Drew University Theological School, as well as First Things editor Father Richard John Neuhaus. Cultural figures were also well represented, among them musicians Janis Ian and Peter Himmelman, comedians David Brenner and Marc Weiner, and artists Mark Podwal, Archie Rand, Will Eisner, and Joe Kubert. A Change of Heart The Wyman Institute’s petition was transmitted to Secretary Powell on September 10, 2004. Within days, cracks began to appear in the administration’s opposition to the bill. A prominent Republican senator, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, announced he would host two days of events on Capitol Hill to raise awareness of antisemitism. He also called for an annual State Department report on antisemitism. Moreover, Sen. Santorum publicly took issue with State’s opposition to Lantos, saying, “This is an all too common response from that agency. This is not an unusual development from Foggy Bottom — the fog is usually quite pervasive there.”19 On September 21, Congressman Chris Smith — cosponsor of the weaker antisemitism legislation — announced he was withdrawing his bill and endorsing the stronger Lantos version. The San Francisco Chronicle, in its report on Smith’s change of heart, called the Wyman Institute’s petition “one key to advancing Lantos’s bill.”20 Now the dominoes began to fall. Smith’s dramatic reversal helped clear the way for the Senate to unanimously adopt Sen. Campbell’s resolution two days later. A few days after that, The Forward reported that Voinovich — the other cosponsor of the weaker bill — who was running for reelection against a Jewish state senator, was preparing to endorse Lantos’s bill. “I presume that he will do this because this is an important piece of legislation for him,” Lantos commented. “He believes in the substance. But obviously for political reasons, as well.” The newspaper quoted “congressional staffers and Jewish activists in Washington” saying that “the State Department is likely to refrain from lobbying against the measure now that Voinovich and Smith are on board.”21 Indeed, with its congressional allies defecting and the presidential election less than three weeks away, the administration now shifted gears. The State Department quietly stopped opposing the bill, and on October 8, 2004, the House passed the Lantos-Smith measure by acclamation. Two days later, the Senate adopted a new Voinovich bill, identical to the Lantos legislation.22 18. For the story of the students’ campaign, see Rafael Medoff, “‘Retribution Is Not Enough’: The 1943 Campaign by Jewish Students to Raise American Public Awareness of the Nazi Genocide,” 11:2 HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES 171–189 (Fall 1997). 19. Eli Lake, “Senator Works to Build Awareness of Anti-Semitism,” NEW YORK SUN (Sept. 14, 2004). 20. Edward Epstein, “Anti-Semitism Proposal Wins Key Backer,” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (Sept. 22, 2004). 21. Ori Nir, “GOP Congressmen Wage Fight against Antisemitism,” THE FORWARD (Oct. 1, 2004). 22. “Anti-Semitism Office Bill Passes,” JTA, Oct. 12, 2004; James D. Besser, “Congress Scorecard: Split Decision,” NEW YORK JEWISH WEEK (Oct. 15, 2004).
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