TZAV 5784

Our Hero Joe Lieberman

In a nod to our Christian friends who are celebrating Esther this week, I offer the following story. In a kindergarten class, the teacher offered the children $5 if they could name the most famous person who ever lived.

         Little Sean O’Sullivan said, “Saint Patrick!”

         The teacher replied, “No, I’m sorry Sean, that’s not correct.

         Little Johnny Williams said, “Abraham Lincoln!”

         Again, she replied, “No, Johnny, I’m afraid that’s not the answer.”

         Then little David Goldberg said, “Jesus Christ!”

         The teacher replied, “That’s right, David, you get the $5!”

As he came up to collect the money, the teacher asked, “You know David, being Jewish I’m surprised you said Jesus.”

         David replied, “In my heart I know it’s really Moses, but business is business!”

My friends, today I want to speak about a man I have so admired my whole life—a man who always spoke from the heart regardless of business, regardless of what was more beneficial for him, a man who was a hero, a role model to me: Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut who died this week.

But for a few hanging chads in Florida in the fall of 2000, Joe Lieberman would have been America’s 1^st Jewish Vice-President, and Chuck Schumer would not have been able to lay claim to the title of highest-ranking elected Jewish official in American history, as he did earlier this month. The 2000 presidential election came down to 537 votes in Florida. There was recount after recount and the big issue was a card-punch system in some counties—no longer in use—where the cards weren’t aligned properly, and some chads weren’t punched out all the way—and were still hanging on the card. The election was decided by the Supreme Court and George Bush and Dick Cheney were declared the winners.

The 2000 presidential election was painful and fractious for America, but it united American Jews for a brief moment of communal pride over the Jewish candidate for Vice-President, Joe Lieberman.

I met Joe Lieberman 2 times—both in shul at Congregation Kesher Israel in Washington DC, where he was a member. I came to Washington for weddings. Joe didn’t know me, but he was so gracious in welcoming me. After the last service, my father-in-law’s Tallis was misplaced, and he made a very special effort to help us find it. This simple act of kindness for a man of his stature and for someone he didn’t know, says volumes about the man.

Lieberman was a real mentch, the kind of guy that everyone loved, a dying breed—one who brought together politicians from both sides of the isle to tackle complex problems. That’s probably why Al Gore chose him.

I’ll never forget it. I was at a convention of rabbis of the Rabbinic Council of America at the Nevele Hotel in the Catskills, in a session on sermon topics for the High Holy Days. Someone walked in with the news that Al Gore had just picked Senator Joseph Lieberman to be his running mate for Vice-President. We were awe struck—in shock—not knowing what to say, until someone broke the ice and said, “Well, that takes care of Rosh Hashanah’s sermon! Let’s hit the pool!”

That day in August was a watershed moment in American Jewish history. Suddenly I read and saw things I never thought possible before:                          - Peggy Noonan, a Catholic and a prominent Republican, speech writer for Bush senior, concluded her column on Lieberman in the Wall Street Journal: “Mazel Tov America!”

- Bumper stickers in Washington proclaimed: goodbye Bubba, hello Bubbelah!

- Time Magazine carried a picture of Gore and Lieberman with one big word: CHUTZPAH!

- The night of the Democratic convention when Lieberman was nominated, from the thousands of signs all across the hall, you would have thought it was a Hadassah convention!

I thought, “We’ve come a long way baby!” Just 50 years before, there were quotas for Jews in almost every major university. No Blacks or Jews or dogs were allowed in certain neighborhoods, hotels and clubs. Would my grandparents have ever believed that a Jew would come so close to national office, to the presidency?  

Today there are 15 Jews in senior positions in the Biden administration, Jews like: Anthony Blinken, David Cohen, Janet Yellen, Merrick Garland, Ron Klain, Alejandro Mayorkas, etc. But they’re all nominally Jews who don’t practice or come to shul much. They personify the attitude of Jews who think that to get ahead in America, you have to assimilate and blend in. With Joe Lieberman, it was different.

Lieberman was not just a Jew; he was a committed Jew, shomer Shabbos—a Modern Orthodox Jew like us who bridged the gap between modernity and tradition. His public observance of Shabbat was a great Kiddush Hashem (Sanctification of Gd’s name). Let me share 2 stories that illustrate this. Richard Cohen, a noted columnist, wrote: Not so long ago, Senator Joe Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, held a Friday night dinner party, but by the time the Senate adjourned, the winter sun had set, and the Jewish Sabbath had begun. Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, will not drive on the Sabbath, so with the guests waiting, he set out for home by foot, about 4.5 miles in the bitter cold. As with much else he set out to do in life, Lieberman got where he had to go, no matter what.

The 2^nd story harks back to when Al Gore, as Vice-President, presided over the Senate. He heard that Lieberman only went to the capital on Shabbat on those occasions when he had to vote—and then, he usually slept on the couch in his office. Gore then said to him, “Our family has an apartment so close to the Capital. Why don’t you stay there on your Sabbath?”

The next time the Senate was in session on Shabbat, Al Gore took him over to the apartment, showed him around, gave him a key, and then, as he left, turned on the lights in the kitchen and bathroom. Then Lieberman said: “What a country! Only in America can I have the Vice-President of the United States as my Shabbos goy!”  

Many have compared Joseph Lieberman to the Biblical Joseph—a Jew who remained faithful to his roots even as he rose to high office in a foreign land and literally saved Egypt. Joe Lieberman modeled how a Torah observant Jew can rise to great heights of leadership while making a significant difference. His book, The Gift of Rest, describes the beauty of Shabbat for him, his wife Hadassah and their children—and the relevance of faith in the modern world.  

Lieberman was passionate about defending Israel—where his daughter Hannah and grandchildren live. In 2021 he publicly criticized far-left members of the Democratic party—the “Squad”—who called for an end to American arms sales to Israel, accusing them of, “being unable to distinguish between Hamas—a terrorist group, an enemy of the United States—and our ally, Israel—one of our closest allies. … To threaten removal of arms sales to Israel in this kind of conflict is just outrageously unfair.”

Today, when antisemitism is on the rise, and Jews are increasingly finding themselves worried about displaying their faith and identity in public, Joe L0ieberman, just a few days before he died, reproached his old colleague, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s speech condemning Israel and calling for the ouster of its leader Bibi Netanyahu. He showed till his dying day how he always put principle 1^st.

Here is something not well-known about Lieberman. When he was in his senior year at Yale University, he traveled to the south to help organize voter registration for blacks. He wrote: “I am going to Mississippi because I feel that my presence as a white man can indicate to Negro Mississippians that there are white men…whose insides burn with anxiety and guilt when they consider the way in which other white men have sought to rob the black man of his humanity.”

Did this earn him the support of blacks? It didn’t matter. He did it—not because it was the popular thing to do—but because the Torah taught him it was the right thing to do!

Ultimately my friends, the great challenge that Joe Lieberman places before each of us is that we are all Joe Lieberman’s—all representatives of the Jewish people. To the real estate agent you do business with, you are Joe Lieberman. To the parents of the children who play with your kids on their little league team, you are Joe Lieberman. To your co-workers, you are Joe Lieberman. Like it or not, fair or not, you are the Jew!

So, how you treat your spouse, how your treat your kids, how you act in business deals, and how you deal with those you work with…reflects not just on you, but on the Jewish people. That’s a heavy burden to carry. But as Joe Lieberman carried it with honor and dignity, so must every one of us. May Joseph Lieberman rest in peace and may his memory always be a source of inspiration in our lives. Amen!