Theres a lot that were going to miss about Gerald Kopel, the journalist-turned politician-turned elder statesman who passed away Jan. 21.
Well miss the gentlemanly civility of an elected official who conducted his political business with dignity and respect for his colleagues from both parties, so strikingly unlike the partisan permafrost that characterizes much of politics today.
Well miss the determined work ethic of a man who, as his son David told the Denver Post this week, read through virtually every bill he voted on during his 22 years in the Colorado House of Representatives a rare and arduous feat.
Well miss the creativity and persistence of a legislator who understood that his responsibilities as a Jew meant that international issues affecting Jews were very much the business of a state legislature.
The shining example of that perspective was Kopels work, in conjunction with recently retired State Representative Tillman Bishop, to form the Committee to Free the Leningrad Three in 1980, designed to pressure the Soviet Union to release prisoners of conscience through a legislators letter-writing campaign.
Not only did the committee succeed in its goal of helping to free the prisoners in question, it became an early model for effective action that inspired and informed many other activists who joined the bandwagon in the long and difficult struggle to free Soviet Jewry.
We didnt just pass a resolution and then sit on our hands, Kopel told the Intermountain Jewish News in 2009, shortly before he and Bishop were honored for those efforts. We did our best to get everybody involved.
Well miss that sort of resolve, both visionary and stubborn, and that morally solid determination to do the right thing.
Thank you, Mr. Kopel, for all that you did, and for setting an example that we ardently hope your elected successors will be wise enough to emulate.
Copyright © 2012 by the Intermountain Jewish News
