c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ The nomination of James S. Tisch to become the next president of the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York has been challenged by anti-smoking activists because of his company’s ownership of cigarette manufacturer Lorillard.

Tisch _ a member of a wealthy Jewish family that gives generously of its time and money to Jewish charities _ is president and chief operating officer of New York-based Loews Corp., a highly diversified company that produces and sells cigarettes through its wholly owned subsidiary Lorillard. Lorillard’s brands include Newport, Kent and True.

Tisch’s selection as the lone candidate by a seven-member nominating committee virtually assures his election as president-elect by the board of United Jewish Appeal-Federation when it meets May 15.

But that hasn’t stopped Henry Everett, a board member, from making Tisch’s nomination a public issue at a time when anti-tobacco sentiment is on the rise and the White House has launched its own campaign to stop teen smoking.”The tobacco industry is one of the biggest killers in the world,”Everett said in an interview Thursday (May 8).”We can’t be immune to the morality of this situation.” After Everett contacted them, some 20 Jewish and non-Jewish religious and secular anti-smoking activists sent letters to the United Jewish Appeal-Federation asking it to reconsider Tisch’s nomination.

Among them were the heads of Reform Judaism’s Religious Action Center and its Commission on Social Action, each of whom stressed that they were acting on their own and not on behalf of their organizations. Others included the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) and the chairwoman of the American Medical Association’s Tobacco Control and Prevention Subcommittee.

The Rev. Michael Crosby, a Roman Catholic priest in Milwaukee who chairs the Interfaith Center’s anti-tobacco campaign, questioned”the wisdom of so honoring someone who derives great income from a product that leads to the death of others. UJA-Federation is opening itself to great criticism by doing this.” The ICCR is comprised of 275 Catholic, Protestant and Jewish institutional investors from the United States and Canada. Among its efforts has been a campaign to get religious bodies to divest themselves of tobacco industry stocks because of tobacco’s harmful effects.

United Jewish Appeal-Federation is the nation’s 29th largest charity, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and raised $228 million last year. Almost half the money went to support programs in Israel, while the rest helped finance social welfare and community outreach efforts in New York.

Tisch’s family, through its various foundations, reportedly gave $1.8 million to Jewish charities in 1995. In 1994, according to Moment magazine, a leading Jewish bimonthly publication, the family’s foundations gave $2.8 million to the United Jewish Appeal-Federation, in addition to monies given to other Jewish charities.

Tisch, 44, led the organization’s 1995 fund-raising campaign. His father, Laurence, was president of the United Jewish Appeal and his mother, Billie, led the Federation prior to the merger of those groups in 1986.

Neither James Tisch nor his public relations representatives responded to repeated telephone calls asking for comment.

However, Gail Hyman, the United Jewish Appeal-Federation’s vice president of marketing and communication, defended the nomination and said opposition to Tisch _ who would serve as president-elect for a year prior to becoming president in July 1998 _ was limited.”Mr. Tisch represents the best and brightest in the community,”she said.”He has a lot of charisma with young people and can reach out and connect with them. That’s part of the reason why he was selected.” Hyman also said she knew of no other opposition to Tisch among the organization’s 160 board members and that less than a dozen phone calls had been received objecting to his nomination.”I would not characterize that as a groundswell of opposition at the moment,”she said.

Hyman said the United Jewish Appeal-Federation has no position on smoking, although the practice is banned in its offices.

Moreover, she added,”a philanthropy, particularly one involved in life and death issues for people, is not the right venue to debate the ills of tobacco. That puts at risk the very people we’re trying to help.” Everett, a wealthy investment adviser who also gives much time and money to Jewish causes, disagreed.”Where else do we discuss values if not in a charitable organization?”he said.”Where else but in an organization that should be laden with values do you discuss the moral credentials of who will lead the organization?” Everett said the United Jewish Appeal-Federation”is about to shackle itself with a moral lodestone. It will be in no position to criticize anybody else on moral grounds because of this ghost in its own closet.”

DEA END RIFKIN