“When I was asked to do an introduction for the JAC Education Foundation’s Jewish Community Voter Guide, I was initially beset by grave doubts that I was qualified to comment intelligently on the subject matter.

But I have written what I personally feel about the privilege of being an American citizen, something I have never taken for granted. It ties in with the fact that I never fail to be awed by my RIGHT to voice my opinion.

That feeling never came more clearly into focus than at a high school assembly a number of years ago when I spoke about my wartime experience. In the course of the question and answer period one student spoke up. “Mrs. Klein, while all that was happening to you, why didn’t you write to your Congressman about that guy Hitler?” Although that prompted a certain amount of snickering among the audience, my perception was a different one. The question truly stunned me and nearly reduced me to tears. It showed that I was a citizen of a country in which, if you didn’t like what your government was doing, you could write to your Congressman without trepidation. I have related that moment many times to young audiences, apprising them of the value of that priceless privilege.

Another thought I want to share with you is one that has occasionally come up. It is generally phrased: Why do I care so much about Israel when at the same time I claim to be a proud, responsible American? And my answer is this: I have no childhood home; my family was killed in Europe, and I, myself suffered years of persecution in German slave labor and concentration camps. There, I was merely a number, with no rights what soever. For me, that landscape of horror precludes harboring nostalgic memories of my childhood environment. Instead, those memories have been transferred to Israel, where the dignity of a memorial site for my family has been assured. When I stand at Yad Vashem , I feel that, metaphorically speaking, I am standing at my parents’ graves.

I am proud of being an American, an American Jew. But knowing that I could have a citizenship in Israel frees me from the fear of being homeless, as I once was. It greatly enhances my choice of being American. My love for Israel represents the love for my parents and my lost family, whereas my love for America is the love for my husband, my children and grandchildren.

My upbringing and my religion, which were and are steeped in moral ethics and values, fill me with pride. After all, my ancestors gave the Ten Commandments to the world at a time when a large part of the world still dwelled in unenlightened darkness. Were the world to adhere to that code of ethics, we would be free of most of the prevailing ills of society and the wanton aggression of nations. Were our country to live up to its potential of taking care of those who cannot care for themselves, of honoring the children and the elderly by ensuring their well- being, of eliminating bigotry and discrimination, of pursuing justice, of repudiating senseless violence, then we would know that our elected officials were doing their job. That is the point of this Jewish Community Voter Guide: to let us know if our elected officials are doing their job according to our standards and beliefs. If they are, we applaud them; if they are not, we speak out. Ultimately, we judge them when we cast our ballots in an informed, intelligent way.

Thank you, JAC, and your Education Foundation, for providing this crucial information for our community.

You must understand what pride, joy and honor it is to exercise my right to vote, knowing that no matter what side I may cast my vote on, it will be, to the best of my ability, for the preservation of the values we cherish.”

Gerda W. Klein, September 2000