Anti-Gossip Drive Goes From Whisper to Roar

Pass it on: A rabbi’s campaign to stop people from gossiping is going national this week, with TV commercials, billboards and favorable whispers from movie stars, authors and big-time politicians.

Chaim Feld of University Heights, Ohio, and several associates hope his message--that “words can heal”--will become something of a national mantra, leading to a nicer, more civil society. If it works, husbands will avoid arguing with wives. Schoolkids will stop disparaging other kids’ clothes, hair, complexions and habits. Office gossips will speak no evil, and refuse to listen to it too.

The idea of halting gossip and “verbal abuse” is rooted deep within religion, Feld says, but it is attracting endorsements in the secular world from people including Goldie Hawn, Tom Cruise and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Support for a possible “Words Can Heal” Senate resolution is building in Congress, and promoters hope for a nod from President Bush.

All this from the idea of a rabbi who adapted the Jewish principle of avoiding “Loshon Hora,” a Hebrew phrase for negative speech. Feld, whose full-time job now is to co-direct the campaign, began talking about the value of ethical speech and mutual respect, teaching classes about it in Cleveland and getting calls about it from across the globe.

Then he co-wrote a book, “The Words Can Heal Handbook: How Changing Your Words Can Transform Your Life and the Lives of Others,” which will go on sale nationwide in January. Feld wrote the book with Hilary Rich, the author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Perfect Marriage,” and Irwin Katsof, who with TV personality Larry King authored “Powerful Prayers.” For now, the book can be downloaded for free from a Web site: https://www.wordscanheal.org.

With money from donors and volunteer creative work from Los Angeles ad agency Suissa Miller, $300,000 worth of commercials, signs, and newspaper and magazine ads started appearing Tuesday in Washington. Among other things, they show students saying complimentary things about a new kid and two baseball players disagreeing but still respectful of each other’s point of view.

The campaign will move on to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, cities where financial backers are in place, said Washington P.R. maven Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi.