WORLD ECONOMIC
FORUM
‘When
I Grow Up
I Want To Be King!’
By Tim Boxer
 ABBI
ARTHUR SCHNEIER, head of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation,
regularly hobnobs with the heads of state and ecumenical giants in
all parts of the globe. He was doing just that last month close to
home, as Davos came to New York.
To hear him tell it, the
reason the World Economic Forum was held outside Switzerland for the
first time was due to a meeting with founder Klaus Schwab.
Schneier wanted to convince him to include religious leaders in the
next forum.
The meeting took place at
Schneier’s office in New York. The date was 9/11.
“As we watched the
horrific destruction of the Twin Towers on television,” Schneier
related, “I suggested to Schwab that he schedule the next WEF
conclave in New York as a show of solidarity. Not only did he agree
to invite religious leaders, but to move Davos to New York.”
The elite world gathering
offered Schneier a unique opportunity to escort several religious
leaders to witness the devastation at Ground Zero.
He invited two chief
rabbis, Jonathan Sacks of Great Britain and Israel Meir
Lau of Israel, who had come to the WEF, to spend Shabbat at his
Park East Synagogue.
At
Friday night services, Sacks told how, as chief rabbi of the
Commonwealth, he is required to travel to the far reaches of the
Queen’s domain. In each country the governor general, who serves
as representative of the crown, would welcome him.
In
New Zealand, they met at a yeshiva. The governor general was very
gracious in greeting the children, asking each what he wanted to be
when he grows up.
One
lad said, “Please, sir, I want to be the king!”
Sacks
explained to the Queen’s representative, “We teach our children
to aim high.”
Israeli
Chief Rabbi Lau addressed
the congregants at Saturday morning services. He told about
attending funerals every week, sometimes going from one to the next
all day long.
Among
the notables who were visibly moved by Lau’s words were Kenneth
Bialkin of the American Jewish
Historical Society, Leon Levy
of the American Sephardi Federation, Rabbi David Rosen,
Sir Sigmund Sternberg, S. Daniel Abraham
and synagogue president Michael Scharf
, NYC commissioner for community assistance Jonathan
Greenspun and Rabbi Marc
Schneier of the Hampton Synagogue.
When he was chief rabbi of
Netanya 22 years ago, he officiated at the wedding of a young girl
named Shira. Her family grew to eight happy children.
Last summer, after the
bombing of Sbarro, Lau got a call from Shira’s sister. This time
he was asked to officiate at the burial of Shira, her husband, and
three children.
He stood silently before
five coffins, tears welling up in his eyes. The only words he could
cry out were ahd matai – how much longer?
He went to the hospital to
visit the youngest daughter, eight years old, now an orphan. Her
face was all bandaged up, except for the eyes.
Lau looked in her eyes, red
with tears, and said, “Miriam, a long time ago there was a
little boy, also eight years old, also an orphan. He lost his father
and mother to the Nazis in Poland. He came here and grew up. You are
looking at him now – the chief rabbi of our nation.
“See what you can become?
Be strong. You too can grow up to be a leader of our people.”
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