c. 2007 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) On Sept. 10, 2001, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was at a low point in both his personal and professional lives.
He was prohibited by law from seeking a third term, and Republican and Democratic primaries the next day would select candidates to succeed him. Giuliani was recovering from cancer and facing low poll ratings; his eight years as the Big Apple’s mayor were coming to a desultory end.
There was also the messy divorce from his second wife, Donna Hanover. At a 2000 news conference, he announced his intention to divorce Hanover before informing her. New York’s media widely reported Giuliani’s open relationship with Judith Nathan, whom he later married in 2003.
But Sept. 11 changed everything. After the al-Qaida terrorist attack, Giuliani charged through the smoke-filled Manhattan streets with a surgical mask covering his face. Giuliani became the courageous symbol of American anger and resoluteness. Today, he still rides the crest of those dramatic moments.
An important new book, “Giuliani _ Flawed or Flawless? The Oral Biography” is a unique study of the former mayor. Written by Gerald and Deborah Strober, the book contains interviews with 42 people who provided extraordinary insights about the man who wants to be our 44th president. The Strobers (my longtime friends) are the masters of presenting superb oral biographies of presidents, kings and even the Dalai Lama.
Their new oral biography is perhaps their finest effort, not simply because of its timeliness, but because of the complex multifaceted portrait of Giuliani that emerges from the book’s 332 pages. The Strobers provided a blank canvas and Giuliani’s former teachers, associates, admirers and adversaries filled it in with a dazzling set of conflicting opinions and perspectives.
Not surprisingly, Giuliani’s relations with New York’s Jewish and African-American communities are highlights of the Strobers’ book. In the 1997 mayor’s race, Giuliani attracted 60 percent of the Jewish vote even though his opponent was a well-known Jewish political and communal leader. It was a remarkable showing for a Republican candidate in a heavily Democratic city.
Giuliani’s strong support for Israel’s security and survival was only one factor in gaining three of five Jewish votes. In 1995, he ordered an aide to expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from a Lincoln Center concert celebrating the United Nations’ 50th anniversary.
The U.N. condemned the expulsion, but most New Yorkers supported Giuliani’s action against the leader of a group he called “thugs.”
However, Giuliani’s relations with New York’s black community were one disaster after another. In 1997, Abner Louima, a 30-year-old Haitian immigrant, was sodomized by four police officers in a precinct bathroom. The case became a rallying cry for those who accused Giuliani of racism. One of the police officers is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence for the crime.
Critics accused Giuliani of “not seeing” New York’s black community and of creating a climate of police brutality.
In 1999, another black man, Amadou Diallo, a 23-year-old immigrant from Guinea, was killed when four police officers riddled his body with 41 bullets as Diallo reached for an object thought to be a weapon. It turned out be a wallet.
In a trial, all four officers were acquitted. Many people believe federal prosecutors did not bring their own charges because they wanted to protect the reputation of Giuliani, a former Department of Justice official.
In 2000, Patrick Dorismond, a 26-year-old Haitian immigrant, was killed by undercover police who believed he was a drug pusher. Giuliani, facing his third major confrontation with the black community, took the unheard-of step of revealing Dorismond’s juvenile record of a robbery and assault charge that had been dropped.
To discredit Dorismond, Giuliani uttered three words that inflamed racial tensions: “He’s no choirboy.” But, in fact, Dorismond had been an altar boy, and attended the same Catholic high school as Giuliani.
The Strobers ask: Is Giuliani “Saint Rudy or Mussolini on the Hudson?” It’s unclear. America’s voters will ultimately decide whether the former occupant of Gracie Mansion will move on to the White House.
(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)
KRE/LF END RUDIN
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