By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
In the time between when JTNews went to press on Sept. 17 and when it reached its readers two days later, one rabbi, Mark Glickman of Congregations Kol Ami in Woodinville and Kol Shalom on Bainbridge Island, had a change of heart regarding his signature on the list of 500-plus rabbis nationwide that had endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
“I…asked my name to be taken off not as a political statement,” said Glickman. “I had long had a policy of not making political endorsements, not for political candidates. Normally that had played itself out in regard to local candidates.”
When he got the call from the organizers of the Rabbis for Obama letter, Glickman said, he hadn’t given enough careful consideration to the matter, but after speaking with JTNews in an interview for the first story about the letter as well as being a part of a lively online discussion, he contacted the rabbis who had drafted the letter and asked that his name be removed.
Glickman also consulted with the Kol Ami board, and opinion there was split, he said: Some had no problem with his taking a position on the candidate while others felt it was inappropriate for him to court any type of controversy.
“That argument, that rabbis should not be controversial, was not compelling to me,” he said.
He had not yet spoken with the board at Kol Shalom about the issue.
Rabbi Steven Bob, one of two Illinois rabbis who drafted the letter and are maintaining the list of rabbis, said Glickman was the only one who has asked to be removed. But since the list went public on Sept. 10, it has grown from an initial 300 to over 500 as of Sept. 26, including Rabbi Seth Goldstein of Temple Beth Hatfiloh in Olympia.
“People are very excited about this,” Bob said.
As for Glickman, he said he has no regrets about his change of heart. “What I’ve concluded is that the best and most effective for me,” he said, “is [to speak out] on the issues, rather than for publicly endorsing an individual in a political popularity contest.”