Jewish Law - Commentary/Opinion - Joe Lieberman & The Jewish Problem

Joe Lieberman & The Jewish Problem
Howie Beigelman

Joe Lieberman & The Jewish Problem

Howie Beigelman

A friend compared Senator Lieberman's Senate election to Israel's 1967 military victory. What Jews felt then, Generation X Jews felt upon Joe Lieberman's election. If a Senate seat is the six day war, the vice presidency is the moon shot. If Jews garner spots on national tickets, there is no field, endeavor, or position Jews can not aspire to.

My pride at Senator Lieberman's nomination is manifold. It is firstly, non-partisan. I am, as William Safire writes, that minority within a minority - a Jewish Republican. Still, such pride to have "one of ours" as a vice presidential nominee.

The pride is also personal, in that I know, and stress, I know Senator Lieberman - not that he knows me. While a law student at Georgetown, we both prayed at Kesher Israel. Our relationship went no further than my "Good Shabbos Senator" and his reply "Good Shabbos". Notice there was no "Good Shabbos, Howie" there - he did not know my name. Still he was unfailingly gracious. He is truly all the press says - honest, decent, friendly, private, religious. The Senator also spoke to a Jewish youth group I volunteer with. That's our friendship. Still, it's shocking that one of the hands on the nuclear button may be a hand I shook "Good Shabbos" each week.

Mostly though, the pride is Jewish. Israel's victory in June, 1967 caused a tsunami of Jewish pride even in unaffiliated, secular Jews. The nomination of one Joe Lieberman as the Democrat's man to be that proverbial heartbeat away from the presidency may just shock American Jewry from their ever quickening death march.

The Jewish establishment's mantra for a century is Jews need to assimilate to succeed. Jews heeded that, voluntarily dropping Jewish observances. Now the first Jew reaches the pinnacle of American success. Unlike the Academy Awards, it truly is an honor just to be nominated. That Jew, whom the American people might consider worthy to order their sons to die in battle hasn't assimilated. He accepts Heaven's yoke and a Divine Torah. Al Gore, my friends, has turned the discussion of the Jewish future in America on it's head.

Jews have not gained such prominence and acceptance in over five hundred years. In pre-Inquisition Spain, Rabbi Don Isaac Abarbanel served as Finance Minister to his most Christian Majesty Ferdinand of Aragon and his Queen, Isabella. Pre-war Germany's Jewish acceptance and prominence was not even close. Only in America.

History records the end of Spanish Jewry's golden age. Expulsion in 1492, with Don Isaac Abarbanel leading the way. We know well the end of German Jewry's golden age. Gas chambers; crematorium.

To Jews like myself who thought we'd never see Jewish presidential/vice presidential candidates, America answered we are better than that. Of that America, we are justifiably proud. Of that Second America, of anti-Semites now crawling from under their rocks, we say to those advocating assimilation - told you so. Whether such anti-Semites are a fringe or a mainstream threat and whether the American Jewish experience will end happier than previous golden ages remains to be seen.

Either way, success has been reached in America by a Jew who didn't capitulate. His success brought out latent anti-Semitism that exists no matter how much Jews have capitulated. The message is clear. Whether Jewish America will listen is the new question of record.

Conversely, there is a need to question the Jewish people's place in this great country. On the ninth of Av, Jews worldwide read kinnos, elegies commemorating the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem and Diaspora. One kinna describes the slaughter of the Jews of the Rhineland during the first crusade. Their ancestors settled there after the first Temple's destruction. Turning down invitations to return to Israel upon the rebuilding of the second, they opted to stay in Little Jerusalem. Mr. Gore selected Senator Lieberman during shavuah she'chal bo, the week of the ninth of Av; the most solemn week in the Jewish calendar.

We cheer at his selection and kvell at the nomination. But are we as guilty as the Jews of the Rhineland? Do we think as Spanish Jewry did, that we've arrived? That history is complete; the persecution over? Dare we make similar claims to German Jewry who called Berlin, Jerusalem?

Perhaps Senator Lieberman's nomination causes more problems than it solves; brings up parts of history we'd forgotten? Perhaps it uncovers an ugly side to the goodness, tolerance and fairness the American people have overwhelmingly showered us with and forces us to reassess our goals,worldviews and philosophies?

If so, Thank you, Senator.

(Howie Beigelman is a lawyer and freelance writer in New York.)