By Leslie Gonzalez
First Lady pays surprise visit to East Rockaway
Those who attended the Tuesday, September 26th gathering of the National Council of Jewish Women at the Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Centre expected to meet co-host Joy Behar of ABC's "The View" for a scheduled luncheon. What was not expected was a surprise visit from First Lady and U.S. Senatorial Candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"I don't believe you. She's not listed on the program," said one Peninsula Section member in disbelief. "I don't see any secret service" she exclaimed, even as youthful gentlemen with ear pieces began checking photographer's cameras, lenses and the contents of equipment bags.
But all eyes turned to Hillary as she entered the room under a blanket of security. Mrs. Clinton quietly accepted an invitation to speak before the Council, as she is no stranger to the organization's cause. The First Lady recalled the day over fifteen years ago when she opened a newspaper in a Miami hotel room and saw a picture of a woman working to teach the mother how to teach her own child, a program sponsored by National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) and first developed in Israel. Her fascination with the pre-school instructional program led her to contact NCJW headquarters in New York, befriend the program's founder at Hebrew University, and subsequently promote the program in Israel.
"I always felt privileged and honored to not only work with NCJW and my friends at Hebrew University, but to work very hard to underscore the importance of a safe and secure peace in the Middle East," said Mrs. Clinton.
A devoted Methodist, Hillary Clinton has made about five trips to Israel. She remembered feeling "especially troubled" during a recent visit when she saw that the latest textbooks issued by Palestinian authorities were still teaching lessons of hate to the children of Israel's West Bank and Gaza, impelling her to call for the immediate removal of anti-Semitic language from all Palestinian textbooks.
Addressing the issue of violence and children, Mrs. Clinton reflected on her morning visit to The Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway Middle School of Lawrence (HAFTR), where she met with eight graders in the midst of their student council election. Also visited was the Rambam Mesivta High School, adjacent to HAFTR School. When addressing eighth grade student questions, one girl asked, "How are you planning to get violence off of video games and television?"
"As a mother, I think we all have to do everything possible to create the circumstances in which every child can live up to his or her God-given potential." she stated, recalling how she and her husband raised Chelsea and shielded her from inappropriate programming. She recalled the days when the average household shared a TV and parents knew what children were watching. Mrs. Clinton criticized entertainment companies for advertising and marketing violent entertainment to young children, retailers for selling multi-media merchandise to children despite violent warning labels, and movie theaters for letting children in to restricted films without an adult accomplice. She also condemned "the constant barrage of materialistic marketing and advertising" targeted at children, and criticized companies for spending nearly 7 billion dollars a year marketing to children under 12.
"They target young children's vulnerabilities", she charged, "to make children feel that without their product, they are left out, and children are very sensitive to that." She asked that more attention be focused on this issue. "Too many companies simply see our children as little cash cows that they can exploit."
Mrs. Clinton explained how children look for limits, guidance, parents and adult authority to structure their lives, and asked the NCJW to examine how children's exposure to uncontrolled conditioning may contradict positive values.
"You have never forgotten that families are a child's first school. The core of the service you perform are those Jewish values and principles that have stood the test of so many generations. But these are not just values for NCJW or values for the Jewish community. These are values for all people of good faith," she concluded.
