Edmund R. (Ned) Hanauer (1938-2006): A Prophetic Voice Is Stilled

By Allan C. Brownfeld


	The late Ned Hanauer (The Metrowest Daily News).

THE DEATH OF EDMUND R. (Ned) Hanauer on Aug. 10, 2006 from pancreatic cancer, at the age of 68, means the loss of a prophetic voice who devoted his life to the quest for justice—in particular to a fair and equitable peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

This writer first met Ned Hanauer almost 50 years ago, when we were college students active in the work of the American Council for Judaism, a group committed to the philosophy of classical Reform Judaism. That philosophy held that Judaism was a religion, not a nationality; opposed the concept of Jewish nationalism; and rejected the manner in which the State of Israel and Middle East politics had often replaced God and religion in Jewish religious institutions.

Ned’s grandfather, Elias Kaufman of Lake Charles, Louisiana, was one of the founding members of the Council, and I remember visiting him in Lake Charles on several occasions. My political views being more conservative than Ned’s and those of his brother, Pete, and more in tune their grandfather’s, he would take me aside and ask, “Can’t you do something with my grandsons? They are far too liberal.”

As it turned out, I could not do very much. When he was teaching at Babson College in Boston and I was working in the U.S. Senate, Ned invited me to participate in a debate about the war in Vietnam. His views and mine were quite opposite, but Ned always welcomed a heated and sincere exchange of views.

Ned was born March 1, 1938 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He earned a B.A. in history from Dartmouth College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from American University in Washington, DC. His dissertation—titled, “An Analysis of Conflicting Jewish Positions Regarding the Nature and Political Role of American Jews, with Particular Emphasis on Political Zionism”—indicates his early and abiding concern with the many aspects of this issue.

Ned went on to teach political science to the armed forces at the overseas division of the University of Maryland and at Babson College. Realizing, however, that his commitment to peace in the Middle East and to advancing what he believed to be the humane tradition of prophetic Judaism required full-time attention, as well as an organizational base, Ned left teaching in 1971. The following year he founded Search for Justice and Equality in Palestine/Israel (SEARCH). Its mission was to inform journalists, legislators and opinion makers about aspects of the conflict which did not always receive a hearing in the political establishment and media.

Ned was, in many respects, part of a long line of thoughtful Jewish leaders who believed that Judaism was dedicated to the highest moral law, not to defending whatever other Jews might do. In fact, Jews were to be held to the very highest standards, the very ones they offered to the world in the Hebrew Bible. The “Israel right or wrong” philosophy adopted by many Jewish leaders and organizations was, to Ned, a violation of Judaism’s moral message to the world.

Ned worked with men and women of every race and religion in pursuit of justice, not only in the Middle East but in every world arena. “Ned was the most single-minded person I have ever known as far as his passion for justice and peace,” said the Rev. Ray Low, a retired Episcopal priest and vice president of SEARCH.

The Rev. Jeffrey L. Johnson, a Lutheran minister on SEARCH’s steering committee, said of Ned: “He has a sort of professor’s knowledge of the politics and history of the issue. He really has mastered the details. And then he has this personal passion for justice...And he’s certainly not shy.”

It was Ned’s belief that, in the long run, a safe and secure Israel could only be achieved through justice for the Palestinians. This required the dismantlement of Israeli settlements in occupied territories and movement toward a genuine two-state solution. He called for the U.S. to abandon its “blanket, one-sided...support of Israel.”

Recalled Ned’s brother, Pete Hanauer, of Berkeley, California: “Ned was always standing up for the underdog, even as a kid. He lived by two sayings: ‘Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness,’ and Edmund Burke’s ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.’”

His wife, Renate, notes that his concern for social justice extended to civil rights and animal rights. “When we lived in Washington, DC in the ‘60s,” she said, “Ned rescued a dog who had been hit by a car. He asked the Animal Rescue League to take him to a vet, which they did. But they said they couldn’t take care of him because he was injured, and would have to euthanize him. Since we couldn’t find the owner, and had to foot the vet bill, the dog became ours for 12 years.”

As I remember, the dog was named “Berger,” in honor of Rabbi Elmer Berger, long-time leader of the American Council for Judaism.

Over the years, Ned’s articles and letters about the Middle East appeared in publications around the country, including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also spoke frequently to university and civic audiences. His voice—which stands in the tradition of such Jewish spokesmen for peace and justice as Ahad Ha’am, Martin Buber, and his own former colleagues Rabbi Elmer Berger and Israel Shahak—will be sorely missed.

In extending condolences to his wife, Renate, his father, Edmund M. Hanauer, of Rancho Santa Fe, California, and his brother, Pete, Ned’s many friends and admirers not only mourn his loss as a personal one, but lament as well the passing of his powerful voice on behalf of a moral U.S. position in world affairs and of a Judaism stripped of narrowness and parochialism. Sadly, he has left us much too soon.

Allan C. Brownfeld is a syndicated columnist and associate editor of the Lincoln Review, a journal published by the Lincoln Institute for Research and Education, and editor of Issues, the quarterly journal of the American Council for Judaism.