With America under assault, reports of anti-Semitic attacks increasing and the Mid-East death toll rising, attendance at DC 37's annual Jewish Heritage Celebration June 13 set a record.

The usually animated crowd hushed as Rabbi Alvin Kass delivered an impassioned invocation: "Because we believe every life is sacred, we must pursue the ways of peace. We will fight to defend ourselves, but what we want is a world of peace." The rabbi is Senior Jewish Chaplain of the Police Dept. and a member of Local 299.

Jewish Heritage Committee Chair Larry Glickson of SSEU Local 371 told of recent synagogue burnings in Europe and outbreaks of hatred in the U.S. where "anti-Israel sentiment translated into anti-Jewish incidents." He said he was proud that DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts and President Veronica Montgomery-Costa had made it clear that "prejudice will not find a foothold in our union."

Introduced by Joan Reed, president of Local 2054 and a co-chair of the committee, Ms. Roberts won repeated applause, starting with her opening "Shalom" (Hebrew for peace).

Jewish leaders and members have played a central role in the battles of the American labor movement for social and economic justice, said Ms. Roberts. "They have a tradition of standing up to oppression wherever it appears, just like we do in DC 37. The Jewish heritage is a lesson in how to overcome great obstacles."

In her four trips to Israel, she said, the people she met "never cared what color anybody was." At DC 37, she added, "We are all brothers and sisters. Bigotry has no home in DC 37."

The Jewish Heritage Committee follows an ancient religious commandment by sharing its annual dinner with those in need through an organization called Mazon, whose national chair, David Napell, thanked the participants: "Mazon is a Jewish response to hunger, but not a response only to Jewish hunger. We ask Jewish people and groups to allot part of the cost of their celebrations to alleviate hunger and its causes among people of all backgrounds worldwide."

SSEU Local 371 President Charles Ensley introduced guest speaker Alan Hevesi, former city comptroller, as "a friend of working people everywhere." Hevesi said he was proud that his son Andrew is a member of DC 37 and "honored to be a political leader in the most ethnically diverse city in the world."

After the tasty if fattening kosher meal coordinated by Committee Co-chair Linda Feldman, participants were ready to hear Regina Ress tell enchanting folk tales from the old world, each with a zetz of a social justice moral. The Golden Land Klezmer Trio provided musical interludes. Comedian Bobby Ramson got a hilarious introduction from Lou Weiser, President of the Council of Jewish Organizations in Civil Service, and no mean practitioner of Yiddishkeit humor himself.

In the DC 37 lobby area, the committee presented photographs of Jewish communities in Ireland, Cuba and Chile taken by Local 371 member Paul Margolis.