Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein and Chairman Rubin Margules released the following statement:
It is with profound grief and sorrow that the Zionist Organization of America deeply mourns the passing of Zionist giant and ZOA National Board member, dear Cherna Moskowitz, wife of the late Zionist giant Dr. Irving Moskowitz.
Cherna Moskowitz was an extraordinary Zionist. Her love of the holy land of all of Eretz Yisroel, given to the Jewish people by G-d almighty, was surpassed only by her love of her fabulous family.
Cherna, alongside her beloved husband, Dr. Irving Moskowitz, committed her life to legally securing all of the Jewish people’s eternal city Jerusalem and Judea/Samaria for the Jewish people, and helping the Jewish people in every way she could. She would frequently say “We are Jews from Judea. It is our land bequeathed to us by Hashem. We must do everything in our power to secure it for future generations of Jews. It is morally, legally and religiously the right thing to do. It is our obligation as Jews.” And Cherna and Irving used all the resources at their disposal – estimated at over half a billion dollars – to legally and successfully purchase important, strategic land and develop renewed Jewish communities in Yerushalayim and Yehuda and Shomron. The Jerusalem Post called Jerusalem “the City Moskowitz helped reclaim.”
Cherna and Irving were an extraordinary couple. They are truly legends of Jewish history who will never be forgotten, and will always be appreciated. They were beloved and proud partners and Board members of the Zionist Organization of America. At the very first ZOA dinner that I organized and oversaw as ZOA president in 1994, we honored Dr. Irving and Cherna Moskowitz, recognizing their unique and incomparable contributions to Eretz Yisroel. At that ZOA dinner, Likud Chairman, future Israeli Prime Minister and then-Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu bragged that Cherna and Irving were his “favorite people,” and admired the crowd of over 600 people drawn by the Moskowitzes’ “newly revitalized ZOA,” as Netanyahu called us. Netanyahu then added, “Cherna and Irving, keep it up!”
At that ZOA dinner, Senator Richard Shelby, Rep. Elliot Engel, Rep. Nita Lowey and Rep. Jim Saxton all publicly praised Cherna and Irving Moskowitz for their extraordinary work for Israel and the Jewish people.
I will always remember the hundreds of inspiring conversations I had with Cherna. She gave me strength to continue our sacred work, especially at difficult times. Cherna was brilliant, extremely hard-working, resourceful beyond human comprehension, yet always kind and patient, with a sympathetic ear. I remember how she proudly showed me pictures of her family and the political cartoons in major publications, both positive and negative, about her and Irving’s legendary Zionist work.
Cherna was also a beautiful writer. We are reprinting below her moving op-ed printed in The Jerusalem Post in 2009, reminding the world, “This is Our Place.” Cherna championed true Jewish literature, movies, paintings, photography and the like, noting that these can be “powerful mediums in awakening the heart and inspiring a love for our Homeland and our heritage.”
I, Morton Klein, and all of us at ZOA will always remember our Board member and major supporter, the great American Jew, Zionist and builder extraordinaire of all of the Jewish State of Israel, Ms. Cherna Moskowitz. We offer our heartfelt condolences to her devoted partner in her work, daughter Laurie Moskowitz Hirsch, all of her eight beautiful children, over 40 grandchildren, numerous great-grandchildren and her entire family. May you be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
This is Our Place, So Mind Your Manners
By Cherna Moskowitz
(September 5, 2009 / JPost) When my husband Irving was a young man he would go door-to-door around Milwaukee with a Jewish National Fund blue box collecting money to redeem property in the Land of Israel. Although it was during the Depression, everyone put in what they could afford: pennies, nickels and dimes.
In the 19th century, wealthy Jews like Rothschild were purchasing large tracts of land for Jews to settle in the Holy Land. The synagogue Ohel Yitzhak in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, abandoned in 1938 after waves of Arab violence – which we recently rebuilt – was originally built and paid for by European Jews in the 1880’s. For thousands of years Jews dreamed of Israel and in the last centuries all Jews took part in the effort to reclaim the land and support Jews who lived there.
This is a part of the Jewish tradition: charity for the poor and reclaiming the land of our country. It was perfectly normal for Irving and me to continue to fulfill these mitzvoth. It was the driving force behind Irving’s quest to work hard to continue the tradition.
How did this become world news, fodder for riots and outraged pronouncements from foreign leaders?
We were both born in the United States and experienced anti-Semitism while growing up. However, we were secure in the knowledge that our government would ensure our equal rights to live in any neighborhood in any part of the country we wished. We believed that if it was legal, the full force of the government would protect us regardless of the fact that we were Jews.
How is it then that President Barack Obama demands that the Israeli government disallow the Shepherd Hotel a building permit because Jews would live there? Christians and Muslims yes, Jews no. This is clearly racist. Furthermore, this would deprive us as American citizens of our constitutional rights to equal protection of the law.
It seems to be a continuation of a 2,000-year-old habit of Jews being told where they can and cannot live. This spanned from the ghettos of medieval Europe, to severe zoning restrictions in czarist Russia and finally to the edicts of Nazism, where we were eventually told that we could not live at all.
Can it be possible that we will accept any part of that today in our own nation? Jews should be able to live anywhere in the world. The question should be: “Is the purchase legal and are the permits in order?” Not “what faith do the families living there follow?”
The British Consulate, located near the Shepherd Hotel, also objected to Jews building on our property there. This while construction on several nearby Arab-owned buildings is currently in progress.
Someone should remind the British Consulate that there is no longer a British Mandate. I don’t mind if they don’t come over with a pot of tea, but at least they should remember that they are guests of the Jewish state and behave in a civilized and neighborly way.
This op-ed was originally published in the Jerusalem Post and can be viewed here.