Dennis Prager

Stars for Afghanistan

By Benjamin Stein

06/18/86

The Wall Street Journal

Los Angeles -- Could this be magic?

On a recent night at the Mark Taper Forum of the Los Angeles Music Center, a

gathering of stars of big and small screen turned out to hear speeches about

Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan -- Soviet atrocities, committed by Russians against women and children in the Panjshir Valley and in Pol-i-Charki Prison.

Dennis Prager, a local rabbi [incorrect] and radio talk show host, told the audience that the Russians had killed one million Afghans, and that this was a real genocide, ". . . and not just any genocide, but a Soviet genocide. The murders were not done by just anyone. The Russians killed these people." Richard "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" Dreyfuss and Cliff "AT&T" Robertson cheered and applauded.

Dr. Robert Simon, a physician who has frequently treated young children with fingers blown off by Soviet booby traps, talked about how he wants to make a movie about the killings in Afghanistan, only it will not be like "The Killing Fields," ". . . where you leave the theater wondering who was at fault. In the real story of Afghanistan, only one group is doing the killing -- Soviet Russia." Terri "Mr. Mom" Garr and Linda "The Exorcist" Blair and Conrad "Diff'rent Strokes" Bain applauded vigorously.

An Afghan refugee wearing full Pushtu headdress, Mohammed Tahir, stood up and took bows from agents and business managers. He wore a patch over the eye he had lost fighting a Soviet tank. Tom Newman, who wrote the score for "Gung Ho" and "Desperately Seeking Susan," applauded until his eyes became moist from emotion. Another Afghan refugee, Hassan Nouri, stood in the orchestra pit, his black eyes blazing, and explained that the Russians were killing 22 Afghans per hour, every hour of the day. He ended by saying, in a stirring voice, "God Bless America, the hope of mankind." The whole crowd, which had been supported and joined by donations from Ed "Lou Grant" Asner and Jerry and David "Airplane" Zucker and Olivia "Gone With the Wind" De Havilland and Paul "Diana" Anka and Suzanne "Three's Company" Somers, stood and applauded.

Is this a dream? Can it really be that in Hollywood, where the slightest criticism of the Soviets is generally taboo, and any criticism of the American way of life is usually treated as revealed truth, a medley of stars came and paid money and lent their very large talents to a night of salvation for the Afghan people and sharp criticism of the Soviet Union for its savaging of Afghanistan?

It can be, and it is.

Janice Prager, a large part of whose family died at the hands of the Nazis, got the idea for the evening from a simple thought: "If we Jews really mean it when we say 'never again' about genocide, we have to really stand up about any genocide, and say never again to the Soviets in Afghanistan."

Ms. Prager and her husband, Dennis, organized the evening of speeches and a performance of Stravinsky's musical drama "The Soldier's Tale" to raise money for a clinic built into a cave in Afghanistan to treat the wounded. They enlisted three major stars, Messrs. Dreyfuss and Robertson and Ms. Garr, to lure other stars and to perform the Stravinsky work.

"It was not at all hard for me to get involved," Mr. Dreyfuss told me. "I'm against genocide. I'm against totalitarianism. We here in Hollywood have a tendency to divide issues into left and right. This isn't that kind of issue.

Criticism of the Soviets for what they have done in Afghanistan should be across the board."

Is this a watershed in Hollywood? Could we possibly see a giant rock telethon for Mujahideen-Aid? According to Mr. Dreyfuss, it could very well happen if the news media get out the word. "People in Hollywood are not sensitized to things unless the media make us be aware. So far, the media have not done anything like the job on the Afghans that they did on Ethiopia."

(As if to underscore Mr. Dreyfuss's point, at a well-advertised press conference before the performance there were only three reporters, and none from the powerful Los Angeles Times, or from any local TV station except KCBS, or from any local radio station except KNX.)

Frankly, the evening went on too long. It could not even be saved by the fine readings from the three star-organizers, who showed for the first time in my sight that they were actors, and not just stars.

But the real point had nothing to do with Stravinsky or a few long-winded speeches. The point was that the influential, powerful Hollywood community can be reached by a humanitarian appeal that unequivocally points the finger at Soviet brutality. Happily, the Hollywood monolith can visualize and feel for the Afghans who have been burned alive or thrown down wells or napalmed in hospitals or machine-gunned in front of graves they have dug themselves, even if the killers are from a group usually immune from criticism anywhere near Sunset Boulevard. The stars present at the fundraiser for the Afghan Jewish hospital were not the "old guard" of Reagan pals such as Bob Hope or Efrem Zimbalist or Robert Stack. Monday's glitter was from men and women who would normally run with the prevailing "progressive" tide in Hollywood.

Clearly, it takes very determined and devoted people like the Pragers and Richard Dreyfuss to bring it off. But Hollywood can be made aware of a duty to use its star power to save the innocent from Bolshevik cruelty, and not just from evil bankers or giant chemical companies or from the CIA. If Hollywood, especially younger Hollywood, can see the truth, it can show the truth to a vastly larger public, especially a vastly larger younger public.

Monday night at the Mark Taper was a night of hope not just for the mujahideen, but for Tinseltown, and for the country it serves. Even stars can see the light.

Mr. Ben Stein is a writer in Los Angeles.

Southern California File

ROSANNE KEYNAN

01/04/92

Los Angeles Times

Dennis Prager, radio talk show host, lecturer and publisher of a quarterly on ethical issues, has founded the Micah Center for Ethical Monotheism in Culver City with a grant from James E. Cayne, president of Bear, Stearns Cos.

Named for the biblical prophet Micah, who admonished mankind to "act justly, love goodness and walk humbly with your God," the center's purpose is to work with Christians, Jews and Muslims to emphasize the role of ethics within each of these monotheistic religions.

One of the center's first projects, said Prager, its president, is arranging dinners for blacks and whites-and for Jews and Muslims-at each other's homes. "It's such a simple principle," he said, "but with profound implications: You cannot hate a group if you see its members as individuals. We want to combat racism on all sides-but without further civil rights legislation."

Calling the center's position "passionately centrist," Prager said the center favors the separation of church and state but opposes efforts by the American Civil Liberties Union to "remove every reference to God from public life" and is troubled by other organizations that work to prevent any public display of religion.

He said it will work with clergy, parents, educators and the media to oppose secularist extremism in American society. But, he added, it will also oppose religious extremism, such as efforts to prohibit public schools from teaching theories about the creation of the world that differ from a literal reading of the biblical story.