Steven Hill of Law & Order (left) and
Larry Spiewak, Chai Lifeline president.
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CHAI
LIFELINE
Life
Goes On
No Matter What
Story and Photo by Tim Boxer
 EOPLE
ask Jack Kemp, the former Congressman from Buffalo and former
quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, why he, a gentile, supports
Israel so ardently. He tells them:
“I’ve been to Israel 14 times. In Haifa I
had lunch in a restaurant owned by a young couple from Chicago. I
asked why what they do this? The young man said he wanted to be in
Israel because it’s the American thing to do.”
Straightening out his yarmulke, decked with
Israeli and American flags, Kemp declared, “Israel is like the
America of 1776. I say, as a Christian, we are all Israelis!”
That statement earned hearty applause from the
1300 guests of the Chai Lifeline dinner at the New York Sheraton.
Uri Bar-Ner, former Israeli ambassador
to Turkey, said his son is a captain in the IDF. In Jenin a young
boy approached him and taunted, “Shoot me! I want to be sharif
[martyr].”
The boy’s mother stood at the side yelling,
“Shoot him! We want $25,000 from Iraq!”
Chai Lifeline, which provides children with
life-threatening disease with professional services, honored William
R. Nuti, senior vice president of Cisco Systems, and Clifford
M. Sobel, former chairman of Net2Phone.
Mordy and Eva Rothberg received
the Camp Simcha Award, David and Laurie Kalman got the
Chai Heritage Award, and Dr. Moshe Schlussberg accepted the
Medical Achievement Award.
Myer Berlow, president of global
marketing solutions at AOL Time Warner, serves as campaign chairman.
Chai Lifeline presidents are Larry Spiewak, David Jemal and Sol
Mayer.
“Our message,” said executive vice
president Rabbi Simcha Scholar, “is that buildings can be
rebuilt, pizza shops will reopen, so too cancer patients will
persevere. Life goes on.”
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