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David Horovitz: Full Disclosure

I hadn't expected to be communing with cactuses, along with some 200 mildly inebriated men, in the sweltering heat of the Arizona desert at 11 o�clock at night. But that surreal Thursday night "bonding" exercise, it turned out, was not the biggest surprise of my weekend with the United Jewish Communities� young leadership group. Considerably more improbable was the way I spent the following afternoon -- in the company of three people I barely knew, throwing back M&Ms; and Scotch, as we went over the finer details of our respective personal financial situations.

This annual retreat brings together the few hundred young North American Jewish men and women (the Canadians have recently joined what was hitherto a U.S.-only fest) who both give and act big -- the major donors who also lead the solicitation drives and solidarity missions. Youth is relative, of course, but 20s and 30s are the norm; the over-40s are a self-deprecating minority.

The Friday afternoon "caucus" is designed to extract the maximum annual donation from participants. They�ve already pledged a minimum of $3,600 to attend, but the idea is to commit them to the full Biblically inspired tithe -- 10 percent of their income. Participants split off into groups of four, one of them a veteran who leads the sessions, and discuss their bank statements, bonuses, school fees, other expenditures, and ultimately arrive at a figure for this year�s philanthropy. The "caucus" can last two hours or six, at the end of which, light-headed from the whiskey and lighter in the wallet, they stagger off to confess to their significant others. At the session I was graciously invited to attend, the main struggle was not to squeeze more out of well-heeled but reluctant donors, but to assuage the concerns of a generous young man who appeared to be overextending himself. Since the sessions are confidential, I felt the least I could do was embrace the recommended practice of "full disclosure" (now there�s a title for a Michael Crichton blockbuster). And I could understand why some participants spoke later of the "liberating" effect of discussing the never-discussed in such a setting.

These are many of the wealthiest young American Jews, youngsters you might instinctively wish to resent because of their very financial comfort. Many are self-made; some are beneficiaries of family businesses. I met a lone molecular biol-ogist among the predomination of real-estate moguls and lawyers, cosmetic dentists and more lawyers. Even the stand-up comedienne sheepishly acknowledged ownership of a law degree. But they are also the minority of the wealthy youngsters who are giving a good deal back.

The weekend featured a wonderful series of addresses designed to bolster their commitment. Most affecting was a speech by Ed Feinstein, a Conservative rabbi from Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, CA, who has fought off two bouts of cancer, and spoke, with the passion only someone who has stared down death can muster, about the need to make something meaningful of life. He�d officiated at too many funerals, he said, of those who had died 50 years earlier, but only got around to getting buried in their 70s and 80s; too many funerals at which, when he asked the tearful bereaved what their departed loved one�s passions had been, what he had learned and lived for, the answer was nothing more substantial than golf.

My greatest privilege, though, was to have flown to and from Arizona in the company of an ex-paratrooper, Reuven (Ruby) Sharabi, a 23-year-old Tel Avivian who was badly injured by a Palestinian sniper outside Hebron two weeks into the intifada in October 2000 -- four days before he was due to complete his three years of service. Ruby had never been to the United States before (in fact, he�d only ever left Israel for a brief vacation in Turkey), is not a public speaker (and certainly not in English), and was nervous about delivering the 10-minute address he�d written and memorized, detailing the circumstances of his injury and his gratitude for the financial assistance from the Jewish Agency�s Israel Emergency Campaign, which is helping to ease his recovery.

He needn�t have worried. He gave his speech with passion and humility, and was treated with courtesy, respect and affection by the young people at the retreat. "They look me in the eye," was how he put it simply. Many of them told him they felt they owed him a debt of gratitude -- and most certainly not the other way around; that he had been injured fighting, ultimately, for their safety and well-being.

They were right, of course. But he was visibly strengthened to hear it first-hand. And moved by his presence, I�m sure that many of them, in the privacy of the "caucus," pledged to dig a little deeper.