Wolf Blitzer in the Washington Jewish Week

The following is an article that I wrote, which appeared in the March 14, 2024, edition of the Washington Jewish Week:

In this month’s installment of “Remember When,” we look back at our coverage from the mid-1980s, when a writer named Wolf Blitz (yes, that Wolf Blitzer, who is now a renowned and long-time CNN journalist and anchor) was a regular contributor to the Washington Jewish Week.

The Washington Jewish Week’s March 28, 1985, issue contained one of Blitzer’s columns, which was titled “Young Leaders Confront the Issues.” In that column, Blitzer reported on the Second International Young Leadership Assembly, which took place at the Moriah Hotel in Sodom in southern Israel near the Dead Sea.

“But the opportunity to explore some of the most sensitive issues facing Israel and the diaspora – from the perspective of Jewish leaders under the age of 45, in almost equal numbers from the U.S. and Israel – was the highlight of the conference,” Blitzer wrote, noting that “The discussion involving the ‘Who is a Jew’ question was perhaps the most emotionally wrenching of the conference.”

Blitzer wrote about how despite the fact that so many critical and weighty subjects were discussed, there were not necessarily clear answers or tangible results at the end of the conference.

“As on so many other vital issues raised during the conference – including the future of the diaspora, Jewish fund raising, aliyah, economic investments in Israel, Soviet Jewry, joint political action, Jewish education, and cultural exchanges between Israel and the diaspora – there were no definitive answers … But the important thing – as almost all those who participated agreed – was that a forum had been established to at least pursue these issues and actually try to do something about them.”

Blitzer gave great context and color about the spirited debates and discussions that took place at the conference, including a proposal to establish U.S. radio transmitters in Israel “that would penetrate to audiences in the Soviet Union.”

The list of attendees, which Blitzer included in his column, was a who’s who list of young Jewish leaders from the U.S. and Israel. A young member of the Knesset, Ehud Olmert, who later went on to serve as the Prime Minister of Israel from 2006-2009, was there, as was Israeli singer Shlomo Artzi. In addition, the attendees included then Brooklyn District Attorney Elizabeth Holtzman, who went on to serve in the U.S. Congress from 1973–1981, and Professor Deborah Lipstadt, who now holds the title “Ambassador” and serves as U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism.