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.. PHOTOCOPY
PRESERVATION
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American Jewish Committee Dinner
. Remarks by First Lady Hillary Rodharri Clinton
Ronald Reag'an International Trade Center,
Washington, D.C.
May 6,1999
Thank you. Thank you very much. I'am truly honored to join all of you for this 93 rd Annual
Dinner of the American Jewish Col11Iriittee. And I want to thank Bruce [Ramer, president of the
American Jewish Committee] for his leadership and tireless commitment to human rights around
the world, and for that velY moving ahd unforgettable report and video about his experience in ..
the camps.
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I want to thank Bob Goodkind and J~ck Lapan, David Harris and the entire AJC leadership. I
know that there are a number of members of Congress here-and I'm pleased that they are able
to join us-as well as many members of the diplomatic corps, including a number of .
distinguished guests whom you will hear fr9m this evening.
As I was watching that video, I was grateful that we had pictures such as those.we just saw to
make it clear to us what our .obligations are. There is no better way to make the case for why we
must act on behalf of the Kosovars than what we have heard Bruce repOli and the images of the
people-particularly the children-we just saw.
It is fitting that this would be one onhe primary highlights of this dinner. Just as with the trip
itself to see the camps and the full-page newspaper ad that elicited such an extraordinmy
. response, AJC
been leading the way on behalf of so many issues of importance to human
dignity and justice throughout this c~ntury that it cannot at all be surprising that----{)nce again-.
we find this organization on the front lines of caring about the Albanians who have been
.expelled from their land. Because for 93 years, you have not forgotten many people and many
causes around our world. You have :not forgotten-and you have helped the rest of us
remember-the evil that stalked this century and that so tragically and so vividly is still with us,
even as we end it.
has
Wherever human rights have been questioned, or religious freedom threatened; whenever the
dignity of Jews around the world or the security of Israel is under attack or in any way .
endangered, you have made sure that we will never again remain silent.
I was velY pleased to be asked to come here this evening. I know that the important work of the
President and the Secretary of State and all of the advisers that has gone on today and yesterday.
in Europe brings us some pause for· cautious optimism. But itis also true that even there, in the
inner circles of the American government, we can see the role that AJC leaders have played on
the President's foreign policy team-from the State Department to embassies all over the world.
I have many stories that I could share about how the feelings and attitudes and commitments of
the AJC-through the people who;have been influenced and are part of this organization-have
played out on the world stage. But I will just share one of them.
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I remember going to Bucharest in 1996. Al Moses wast1~en the energetic ambassador. We
should all be proud of the service that pe provided-I certainly was. But it was not only on the
big issues of helping to represent the United States as Romania made a very difficult transition
into democracy, but it was also in the little, small ways that he was attentive to the needs of·
people.
He and I together met a very sick yout:tg gir1;·her hands were deformed. Her father was calTying
her in his rums, and he had sought out· Al and me. He knew that I was going to be in the country
and he tracked us down where we were meeting with officials. And he thrust a·letter at us and
begged for help on behalf of his child. In away, he was asking that we not forget that in so
many places around the world, there are so many children who have no hope of living the kind
of lives that we want for our own chiltlren.
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In this .letter, the father wrote asking that if it were at all possible, could our country help his
daughter. Well, many ambaSsadors would have just passed that on. It would have gone through
channels and I'm not sure much would have come of it. But not Ambassador Moses. He found
doctors at a hospital in North Carolina who were able to create new fingers for this child. He
made sure that the trip was sponsored by private Americans, and that the girl was treated not
only medically but humanely. And today I'm told she is back in: Romania a much happier, weli
adjusted girl of9.
. I mention that story not just to brag 8;bout Al Moses, whom i admire, but to make a point: that it
is sometimes too easy to forget the faces behind the statistics; to forget about the stories of the .
old woman who had to be helped out of her tent to the latrine;' of the young children who were
separated from their parents and other family members when they were herded on to buses and
trains to be deported out of their hOJl).eland.
And you have helped us never forget that behind all of those statistics, all of those headlines, are
real people-little boys and girls, mothers and fathers and grandparents. You have worked to
make sure that human rights is not just a slogan but is a commitment and a mission that each of
us is obligated to help fulfill.
I want to thank you for that, because I have seen the results of your work. I've seen it in
Geneva; I've seen it in New York; I've seen it in Beijing, where all of us came together to make
sure that we stated clearly that wom~n 's rights were indeed human rights. And I want to thank
you especially for making it clear for the first time in history that the systematic rapes that have
taken place in Rwanda and in Bosni,a, and now in Kosovo, are called by what .they are: wru'
crimes; crimes against humanity. And they must be punished as such.
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These, then, are the lessons that-both in the organization and through your individual effol1s
you have taught the rest of us by word and deed: lessons of tolerance, ofjustice and freedom;
lessons that are in many ways the very foundation of democracy. And you have given voice to
Jewish values that have been kept alive through Pogroms and the Holocaust, through famine and
exile for 3,500 years.
I know that tonight in this great hal;l we have peopie from countries literally across the globe.
And I know how hard you have worked to keep Jewish life alive, to keep synagogues open, to
keep Jewish heritage a part of the ongoing experience of communities throughout the world.
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�I have also seen that. I have seen it in Ukraine. I have seen it"in Poland. I have even seen it in
Uzbekistan, where Jewish communities once again are rebuilding, where I have seen for the firs!"
time schools reopening.
I remember very well when I visited Ukraine and the Gilad Synagogue in L'viv where-some of
may know its history-the Nazis turn~d it into a horse stable and left a signature ofbullethciles
in the ceiling. The Soviets use this ho~y place as a warehouse.
But because of the deteITni!tation and support ofthose few who stayed behind and those who
migrated back, and with the help of somany American Jews, that synagogue is alive with the
sounds not just of worship but of children singing and laughing as they enteltained me with their
songs that they had learned in school. . After so many years, Jewish life is being rebuilt in those
places that were left behind the Iron Curtain.
In Warsaw, I have sat with young people who have justlearned that they were Jewish. And I
have listened to them tell the stories cif their newfound identity and their pride that is being
supported and helped by so many from here in America. And in a small, tiny synagogue off an
alley in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, I met tile rabbi-who also doubles as the obstetrician/gynecologist
for the community-who told me that that small place had survived all those years of oppression
,
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and atheism, and now it was coming back; it was flowering. And he asked me to thank all of the
friends in America that had helped to'make that happen.
When I told a friend this morning that I'd be coming to this dinner this evening, he gave me a
copy of this week's Torah reading, as he often does. It captures, I think, the kind of timeles's
vision of the future we want for our children and the children of the Ukraine, Poland,
Uzbekistan, the Middle East, the Balkans-everywhere throughout our world.
In the reading, God is teaching his people the laws and commandments, and reminding us how
to honor our obligations not only tohirri but to each other. And it is at that point, toward the end
of Leviticus, where he envisions the ~ind of world that 'Will be created if we honor these
obligations, in these words: "I will grant peace in the land and you shall lie down untroubled by
anyone. No sword shall cross your l<.jnd."
,
I thought of that not only as I saw the video and I heard Bruce speak, but I thpught of that in,
light of my experience yesterday, when on ~ehalf of the President and the government and the
people of the United States, I was privileged to, go to meet the first group of refugees who
arrived in our country at Fort Dix in'New Jersey.
I waS able to welcome them because we had once again opened our aIms and our hearts to this
first group of Kosovar' refugees. There were grandmothers in shawls; there were students who
spoke perfect English. There were children, some in diapers, others sitting on their mothers'
laps. There was even one woman who, I think, has now given birth as of late last night or early
this morning. ' She had told the authprities, our Americaiiauthorities, when she was loaded on to
the plane in Macedonia that she was seven months' pregnant. But, miracle of miracles, we now
have a new baby.
And I was especially touched by thb partnership that existed among our militaI}' and our civilian
relief workers. The general who is running this operation, called "Operation Open Alms,'? told
us that he had instructed all of his personnel that they were to treat these people as guests.
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Because he said he remembered very well the story tha,t was told him of his grandmother
coming to this country from Ukraine. He said, "I know that when she came to our country she,
too, had a handkerchief on her head. She, too, was scared to death. She did,not know what to
expect. But she was taken in."
The way he related his own personal story to what was happening with these refugees made me
very proud to be an American. And when I later went to the gymnasium and talked with the
refugees and shook their hands and looked into the eyes of those children, I knew exactly what
you meant in your advertisement. BelYause in that you said that the children have unanswerable
questions. They've endured unspeakable hardship and many have witnessed atrocities. And yet
we know that they hope to return home. The biggest cheers my remarks received were w~en I
told them on behalf of our country and the President that they wduld be returning home.
,And we can take heart this evening frpm the fact that today, Russia. agreed with us on the
fundamental conditions that Milosevic must meet in order to end this conflict. ' The G-8 stood
together in saying that yes, Milosevic must withdraw his forces from Kosovo, he must permit all
refugees to return safely, he must acc~pt an international security presence, and the people of
Kosovo must have democratic self-government.
Those are the fundamental principles that should govern the final effOlts to bring those
principles intonegotiations that then result in agreements that ~an be enforced: And I know that
is what,the President and Secretary Albright have been working very hard to achieve over the
last two days.
Ifwe ask ourselves, "How do weans,wer the unanswerable questions," then we must inevitably
think again about the horrors of this' century. We did that not so long ago afthe White House,
when we invited the Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel to address us as patt of our
Millennium Lecture series. And he chose as his subject for the evening, "The Perils of
Indifference. "
It was a very timely subject. When I aske'd him to speak to us a year ago, I could never have,
guessed that we would be in the middle of our mission in Kosovo at the time. But in his address,
he talked about his own childhood ahd the unanswerable questions that his experience as a child
of the Holocaust meant. I think he reminded all of us that the evil that we hoped to see end in
this century is something we must remai~c6nstanily vigilant against.
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At the end of his lecture, in the question-and-answer period, the very last question asked was by
a Catholic priest who wanted to know how, given the misery of the last century, Elie Wiesel
dould talk about going ,into the next century with any hope at all.
Well, it's not an easy question to answer, particularly because he has such an incredible view of
the worst of human nature. But I think he gave the only answer anyone can give: "Well," he
said, "what alternative does one have? Ifwe do not have hope, we must invent it."
And that is indeed what AJC and-I would argue-America really stands for: the invention and
propagation of hope. Not unrealistic, idealistic, blind hope, but hope tempered with realism,
with an understanding of human n~ture, with a full awareness of the evil that coexists in the soul
of humanity, but nevertheless hope.
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Hope is what took your delegation to tpose camps. Hope is what put that ad in the newspaper.
Hope is what elicited that more than $1 million in contributions. Hope is what it means to spend
some of that money on educating these children to give them an idea of their own possibilities
yes, indeed, to give them hope.
Ifwe look around the world today, we know that the only way we can create a better future is
through the combination that some would argue is paradoxical-of imagination and hope. on the
one hand, and realism and practicality, on the other: But they have to coexist and even merge if .
we have any chance of making the 21 it century what it should become.
As we move toward the end of this cep.tury, we certainly cannot be satisfied with our own
blessings here in the United States, as great as they are. We have to be constantly aware of how
to do more to make sure those blessings are available to all of our citizens and to generations to
come.. But it is also true that if Ameri,ca is to remain the indispensable nation and the leader of .
this very complicated world in which ,we live, then we also have to reach out, take risks for
peace, be willing to stand behind those who stand for human rights, and always, always to put a
human face on all of the problems we' confront.
If we keep that commitment alive, if yve continue to forge the kind of partnerships that only exist
in the United State~ between private organizations and individuals such as those of you here, and
our government and our private sector, then we will keep faith with our own best. values. We
have a .lot of work ahead of us, at this turning point in history, to learn from the past, nono be its
prisoner; to speak out often for the values we share; to recognize that where the dignity of any
one of us is threaten,ed the dignity of 'all can be threatened as well.
In Elie Wiesel's Nobel Prize acceptailce speech, he remembered as a boy asking his father how
the world could have possibly remained silent during the .Holocaust. And he imagined that
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perhaps at some point in the future a young boy would tum andaskhim the sarile question.
"Tell me," this young child might ask, "what have you done with my future? And what have you
done with your life?" "And I would 'tell him," Wiesel said; "that I have tried to'keep memOlY
alive and I have tried to fight those Who would forget"
How will we answer that question? One hundred years from now, at the end of the next centmy,
perhaps at the 193 rd annual Ale dimler, probably to be held in cyberspace somewhere, what.if
we would be looked back upon by our descendants who wouldsay, "What have you done with
my future?"
If we listen to the words of Leviticus, if we listen to our hearts, if we listen to the voices of the
children we saw in the film, I think we know what we should answer. Because if we join our
hands and hearts together on behalf pfthe refugees, on behalf of those who work for peace and
freedom and human rights, then we will never forget. We will keep alive all of those voices that
have perished in this century; all of those voices that call to us over the decades to remind us .
what it means' to be human, never to forget-but also to use our talents to make it possible for
the words of Leviticus and the promise that it represents to live' today.
I imagine and I hope for a better future in the years to come. And I know that evelY one of you
who is part of this great organization .will continue to do what you can to make such a future a
reality.
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�Thank you very much.
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�
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Lissa Muscatine - Press Office
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First Lady's Office
Press Office
Lissa Muscatine
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1993 - 1997
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<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36239" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
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2011-0415-S
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<p>Lissa Muscatine first served in the Clinton Administration as a speechwriter. Within the First Lady’s Office, she served as Communications Director to the First Lady.</p>
<p>Lissa Muscatine’s records consist of materials from First Lady Hillary Clinton’s Press Office, highlighting topics such as health care, women’s rights, the Millennium Council, Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign, and deal extensively with press interviews given by the First Lady; her domestic and foreign travel; and speeches and remarks, on a wide variety of topics, given by her before and during her time as First Lady. The records include interview transcripts, press releases, speeches and speech transcripts.</p>
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
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1,324 folders in 27 boxes
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FLOTUS Statement and Speeches 5/99 - 10/12/99 [Binder]: [American Jewish Committee Dinner - Washington D.C. 5/6/1999]
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Box 24
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<a href="http://catalog.archives.gov/id/7431941" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
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7431941