BIGOTRY WATCH : Chorus Line

The life and death of Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was murdered Monday in New York, were the sum not only of what he embraced but also of what he rejected.

Kahane was a part of that ugly little chorus that always seems to chant from the fringes of the democratic drama. It is vile company--America’s David Duke, Ulster’s Ian Paisley, France’s Jean Marie Le Pen--and if they signify anything beyond the imperishability of bigotry, it is that democracy is the necessary but not sufficient condition of a decent society.

In this connection, it is worth recalling that while Kahane sought to impose his racist program on the state of Israel, he himself was born, educated and first came to prominence in the United States.

A fraction of the Israeli electorate cast votes for Kahane’s wretched Kach Party; but the bulk of its funds always have come from Americans. They continued to support him even after the Israeli Supreme Court had proscribed his party because it was “Nazi-like,” “racist” and “undemocratic.” Among Kach’s goals are the forcible expulsion of all Palestinians and criminalization of marriage between Jews and non-Jews.

Ordained heir to one of mankind’s great and humane juridical traditions--the Talmud--Kahane also earned a degree in international law from a prestigious American university.

In the end, he abandoned both for another law--the law of the jungle. It was in its service that he lived, and by its blind and unfeeling hand that he died.