JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

eilin, asher
a Beverly Hills law firm. A liberal Democrat, Beilenson was
elected to the California State Assembly in 1963 and the State
Senate in 1965. In his more than decade-long tenure in the
California State Senate, he authored more than 200 pieces of
legislation. Highly esteemed by both his fellow legislators and
members of the press, Beilenson was named best all-around
senator by the state capitol press corps and most effective senator
in a poll of his Senate colleagues.
In 1976, Beilenson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives,
a post he would hold for the next 20 years. During
his tenure in Congress, Beilenson served on the all-important
House Rules Committee, where he became the point man on all
Jewish and Israel-related issues. Within the House, Beilenson
gained a reputation for being a “straight arrow, a man whose
integrity is beyond reproach.” Beilenson also served as chair
of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Beilenson’s legislative interests ranged from budget reform
and “covert-action language” for federal intelligence-gathering
agencies to restrictions on U.S. imports of elephant ivory.
Through Beilenson’s efforts, the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species eventually ordained a worldwide
ban on trade in elephant ivory in 1989. On his many trips
abroad, he always made it a point to have the U.S. State Department
set up meetings with local Jewish groups and then have
prominent Jews invited to American embassy dinners.
Beilenson voted against American involvement in the
1991 Gulf War. Reflecting on that vote, he said, “I don’t like
Americans systematically inflicting great violence and punishment
on another people without absolutely compelling reasons
for doing so. I don’t like the fact that we are killing thousands
of human beings who have not harmed any of us, and
who have no capability of doing so. I regret that we didn’t have
the sense, the imagination, the wit, to deal with the problem
in a way that could have produced the desired results without
going to war.” After serving ten two-year terms, Beilenson retired
from Congress in January 1997.
Bibliography: K.F. Stone, The Congressional Minyan: The
Jews of Capitol Hill (2000), 12–15.
[Kurt Stone (2nd ed.)]
BEILIN, ASHER (1881–1948), Hebrew and Yiddish journalist,
author, and editor. Beilin was born in Kiev. He worked intermittently
as *Shalom Aleichem’s secretary (1901–05). In 1906
he moved to London, where he engaged in journalism, and
in 1933 settled in Jerusalem. Beilin contributed extensively to
the Hebrew and Yiddish press, edited Yiddish papers, and in
his later years wrote for the Tel Aviv Hebrew daily newspaper,
Davar. His writings include reminiscences of J.Ḥ. *Brenner
(1943), with whom he collaborated for many years, and Shalom
Aleichem (1945), a novel Al Belimah (“On Nothing,” 1928),
and a play Banim li-Gevulam (“Sons to their Border,” 1945).
His selected works were published in 1956.
Bibliography: Kol Kitvei G. Shofman, 4 (1960), 283; 5 (1960),
168; LNYL, 1 (1956), 287–8.
[Getzel Kressel]
BEILIN, YOSSI (1948– ), Israeli politician and political scientist.
Member of the Twelfth to Fifteenth Knessets. Beilin
was born in Petaḥ Tikvah. He received his Ph.D. in political
science at Tel Aviv University and taught there in 1972–85. In
1977–84 he served as the spokesman of the *Israel Labor Party
and was part of the entourage of the Party Chairman, Shimon
*Peres. When Peres served as prime minister in the National
Unity Government in 1984–86, Beilin served as government
secretary. In the following two years, after Peres became minister
for foreign affairs, Beilin served as political director general
at the ministry, making efforts to cool Israel’s relations with
South Africa, which still followed a policy of apartheid, and to
establish relations with the African National Congress.
Within the Labor Party he formed the dovish Mashov
Circle. He was elected to the Twelfth Knesset and, until the
Labor Party left the National Unity Government, served under
Peres as deputy minister of finance. In this capacity he
expressed his opinion that only the needy, and not the whole
population, should receive child suppport and other allowances
from the state, provoking severe criticism within the
party. He was also criticized for statements about the expected
level of unemployment, which proved to be conservative.
When Yitzhak *Rabin formed his government in 1992,
Beilin once again followed Peres to the Ministry for Foreign
Affairs as his deputy. At this time he was one of the initiators
of what came to be known as the Oslo Process with two colleagues
– Dr. Ya’ir Hirschfeld and Dr. Ron Pundak. When he
was convinced of the seriousness of the negotiations with the
Palestinians, he approached both Peres and Rabin, who agreed
to upgrade the talks, though until the end of August 1993 the
talks were kept secret from the public.
In June 1995 Beilin was appointed minister of economics
and planning. After Rabin’s assassination, when Peres
became prime pinister, Beilin brought about the dismantlement
of the Ministry of Economics and Planning, which he
thought was superfluous, and was appointed minister in the
Prime Minister’s Office.
Three days before Rabin’s assassination Beilin concluded
with the Palestinian politician Maḥmud Abbas (known as
Abu-Ma’azen), who was later to become prime minister, a
document that outlined the parameters of a permanent settlement
between Israel and the Palestinians. The document,
which was published by Haaretz, spoke of the establishment
of a demilitarized Palestinian state in 90% of the West Bank
and the Gaza Strip, with its capital in the Arab neighborhood
of Abu-Dis, east of Jerusalem. Peres rejected the document,
because he believed it would be harmful to the Labor Party in
the forthcoming elections.
In June 1997 Beilin contested the leadership of the Labor
Party, but lost to Ehud *Barak, receiving 28.5% of the party
vote. In the government formed by Barak after the elections
to the Fifteenth Knesset, he was appointed minister of justice.
He resigned from the Knesset in November 1999, to enable the
next member on the Labor list to enter the Knesset. After Shas
left the government, he also assumed the portfolio for religious
266 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3