c. 2000 Religion News Service
(Rabbi Rudin is the senior interreligious adviser of the American Jewish Committee and a columnist for Religion News Service.)
(UNDATED) Whether the newly minted Gore-Lieberman ticket wins or loses in November, one thing is certain: Our nation’s political life _ indeed, American life in general _ has been permanently changed.
Vice President Al Gore’s choice of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., an Orthodox Jew, as his Democratic running mate shatters one more long-standing barrier of prejudice and exclusion.
Except for Roman Catholics Al Smith in 1928, John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, and Michael Dukakis, an Orthodox Christian, in 1988 every candidate for our country’s highest elective offices has been from a Protestant Christian background. Now that has changed.
While many observers were “surprised,” even “shocked” by Gore’s choice of Lieberman, the presence of a Jew on a national ticket represents the culmination of a long process that began over 80 years ago when Woodrow Wilson was president. In 1916 he appointed his friend and adviser Louis Brandeis, a prominent American Jew, to the Supreme Court. Wilson’s appointment was finally approved by the Senate, but not before anti-Semitism was injected into the confirmation process.
Because Brandeis was the first Jew in history to sit on the High Court, it became a political maxim that one of the nine places was unofficially designated as “the Jewish seat.” Indeed, such luminaries as Benjamin Cardozo, Felix Frankfurter and Arthur Goldberg came to fill that designated place on the bench. Happily, that quota no longer has meaning because there were years recently when no Jew was a member of the Supreme Court, and two of today’s justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, are Jewish.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal swept into Washington in 1933, the new president brought a large number of Jewish advisers with him, most notably Samuel Rosenman and Benjamin Cohen. While Roosevelt appointed his New York state neighbor, Henry Morgenthau Jr., secretary of the treasury, many Jewish members of FDR’s “Brain Trust” consciously chose to remain behind the scenes during the Great Depression of the 1930s when nativist anti-Semitism was prevalent.
It was an era when Hitler’s virulent anti-Jewish policies attracted American followers, most notably Charles Lindbergh, the world-famous aviator. Some anti-Semites derisively labeled FDR’s administration the “Jew Deal.”
Of course, in the 1930s and 1940s Jews were, in fact, elected to the House of Representatives. But those electoral victories were generally discounted because many Jews in Congress represented heavily Jewish districts in places like New York City or Chicago. And even the elections of Herbert Lehman and Henry Horner as governors in New York and Illinois, respectively, were perceived as special cases because of the large number of Jews in those states.
World War II dramatically changed the Jewish community’s self-perception as well as its image within the general American society. When hundreds of thousands of American Jews who served in the U.S. military returned to civilian life following World War II, they were no longer satisfied to be politically out of sight. Nor were they willing to be merely political appointees of presidents and other elected officials.
After 1945 the American Jewish community saw itself as a full and equal participant in all aspects of American life, including politics. And while Jews like Henry Kissinger became secretary of state, another appointive, albeit highly prestigious position of power, other Jews opted to run up front for political offices.
Today, there are some two dozen Jews in the House and 11 in the Senate, representing both political parties. Names like Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., became stalwarts of their parties. California, America’s most populous state, is represented in the Senate by two Jewish women, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.
But Lieberman is different from his Jewish congressional colleagues, not because of his centrist political positions, but because he is a practicing Orthodox Jew.
His nomination is an affirmation of America’s growing emphasis on diversity, but it is also a validation of modern Orthodox Judaism.
Lieberman’s long career of public service shows that one can be an observant Jew, including the prohibition against work on the Sabbath _ Saturday _ and major religious holidays, while still playing a major role in the total American milieu. Simply put, an Orthodox Jew like Lieberman can be both in the world and of the world.
Two questions will immediately arise regarding Gore’s choice: Will Lieberman’s traditional religious practices prevent him from fully carrying out his constitutional duties? How will an Orthodox Jewish vice president affect our Middle East foreign policy?
Clearly, Lieberman’s public record has answered both questions.
In cases of personal or national emergencies, Judaism permits one to act on the Sabbath and holidays. I strongly believe Lieberman will continue to follow America’s traditional course of action vis-a-vis Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Indeed, each time I visit Israel, I hear universal bipartisan praise for both Presidents Reagan and Clinton. Both are beloved in that nation, and both represent mainstream American policy.
Finally, Lieberman’s nomination opens up the probability that a Jew will soon be seeking the presidency, and his nomination also dramatically lowers the bar for all other minorities in this country. Win or lose, by choosing Lieberman, Gore has made important history.
DEA END RUDIN
