Hazel Stix, second from left, makes her presentation as, from left, Herb Horowitz, Ruth Miller, and Charles Rojer listen at the American Jewish Committee Breakfast Club. Photo by Marilyn Silverstein
January 08, 2008
In the small banquet room of the Princetonian Diner on Route 1 in Princeton one recent morning, mundane questions from the waitress — “Scrambled eggs? Bagel and cream cheese? Oatmeal?” — mingled with vexing questions about Middle East peace.
The occasion was the third meeting of the Breakfast Club of the Central New Jersey Chapter of the American Jewish Committee. Seated at a T-shaped table, 17 members of the chapter were digesting not only their breakfasts, but also a report from member Hazel Stix of Princeton on the recent Middle East conference in Annapolis.
“It’s a new initiative we’re trying this year,” chapter president Herb Horowitz of Princeton said in an interview. “This is a way to get people in our chapter more knowledgeable about what AJC is doing and what its positions are. What are AJC’s priority issues and what is AJC saying about these issues?”
In addition to Middle East peace, some of the issues on the Breakfast Club’s menu are energy, terrorism, immigration, homeland security, and Israel advocacy, Horowitz said.
“I think the value is really understanding — to have people understand what AJC’s issues are and to have an understanding of those issues,” he said. “We’re doing things to try to build our membership, and this is one of the ways, just getting a group of people together for discussion.”
With Stix acting as moderator, the discussion that morning ranged from Annapolis and its possibilities for peace to the problem of Palestinian refugees, the threat posed by Iran, and the motives of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“These are topics of interest,” Lew Meixler of Princeton told New Jersey Jewish News as the meeting broke.
“This is the first time I’ve attended,” said Harold Borkan of Princeton. “It seems, just from the sound of it, it’s a very healthy discussion.”
“For me,” said Charles Rojer of Princeton, “what’s important is that we bring up problems that face Israel and the Jewish people, and it really focuses us on that aspect of where Israel is at the present time.”
“It’s very important for everyone to get together and to speak their own opinions,” added Madlen Fizicki of Monroe Township. “I’m impressed with how knowledgeable and well informed everybody is.”
For Eric Rau of Lawrenceville, discussion is what the Breakfast Club is all about. “It’s a way to express ourselves and to listen to each other,” he said, “and maybe it has some impact at another time.”
All in all, the participants in the Breakfast Club discussions have been very thoughtful, with “a minimum of soap-boxing,” observed Ruth Miller of Princeton.
“I think it’s very good to have a bunch of serious people talking about topics that are relevant to Jewish concerns locally and nationally,” Miller said, “and I think it’s exactly the kind of thing AJC likes to do — to make people think about the issues.”