By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
Editor’s note: Since JTNews went to press, Rabbi Mark Glickman has asked that he be removed from the list. An update can be found at the bottom of this story.
On Sept. 10, two suburban Chicago rabbis sent out a letter in support of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. In addition to the signatures of those two men, Rabbis Sam Gordon and Steve Bob, 300 other rabbis from across the country lent their names to the letter, including seven from the Puget Sound region.
The letter, which can be found at
www.rabbisforobama.com, was written by rabbis who know Obama personally and suggests the candidate embodies Jewish values in its support of him: “Senator Barack Obama inspires in us the hope for an America once more called to its best values,” it reads. “We know him to be a man of incredible integrity, born of a deep and abiding spiritual faith based on the teachings of the Hebrew Prophets, and committed to achieving a world of peace with justice for all people.”
The letter also gets pointedly political, refuting charges that have dogged Obama and his position on Israel over the past year:
“We know that Barack Obama’s longstanding, stalwart support for Israel is a testament to his own principles as well as the strong bi-partisan pro-Israel movement in America, and we fear that the attempts by some to use Israel as a wedge issue against him — unjustifiably — is dangerous in that it politicizes the pro-Israel position. Most importantly it has completely distorted Senator Obama’s record. With his tough but pragmatic approach to Iran, Senator Obama is in the best position to restore faith in America as a leader in the fight against serious threats to Israel, our allies, and the United States.”
Five of the seven Washington State rabbis who signed the letter lead congregations: Rabbis Jill Borodin of Congregation Beth Shalom in Seattle, Mark Glickman of Congregations Kol Ami in Woodinville and Kol Shalom on Bainbridge Island, Bruce Kadden of Temple Beth El in Tacoma, Michael Latz of West Seattle’s Kol HaNeshamah progressive community, and Jonathan Singer of Temple Beth Am in Seattle. Rabbis Hillel Gamoran and Stanley Yedwab also signed the letter.
As 501(c)3 charitable organizations, synagogues are by law not allowed to promote one candidate over another, and the rabbis JTNews spoke to for this story said they would never use their pulpits to promote their candidate. But the question did arise as to whether it’s appropriate to publicly sign their names to a partisan campaign.
“Obviously, I don’t think it’s inappropriate,” said Rabbi Glickman. “I’m not speaking for my congregation, I’m speaking for myself.”
As a Jew, he said, he can’t remove himself from his country’s politics or issues.
“Judaism has always played itself out in the real world, and we are Jewish only to the extent that we transform our values into action, and sometimes that means…getting involved with politics,” he said. “That means doing it with caution, of course.”
To do anything else, he added, would be an abdication of responsibility.
Rabbi Latz agrees.
“I think that Jews have a tradition in history of civic engagement, and I think that I’m following that as a rabbi on the great issues of the day,” he said. “In my personal time, I am advocating very strongly with my friends and family for a particular candidate. I’m not doing so in my synagogue.”
Both of these rabbis, as do many others, advocate for social or political change from the pulpit, including issues that might not be thought of as being directly Jewish.
“Every issue in the presidential election is a Jewish issue,” Glickman said he has told his congregations. “Judaism speaks to all the various sundry parts of our lives. Health care is a Jewish issue. Education is a Jewish issue. War is a very Jewish issue.”
Both Latz and Glickman, however, acknowledged that their public stance in favor of Obama might alienate congregants.
“A rabbi can alienate congregations by doing almost anything, so certainly there’s always that possibility,” Glickman said.
In that event, both said it’s the personal relationships with their congregants that are more important than the political positions, and that they can overcome those differences.
“We realize that people have a wide range of opinions and things that they do,” said Latz. “I’m a professional and a leader and a role model, and hope that people see me as such and respect me, and know that even if we disagree on certain things that I can still be their rabbi.”
Not every rabbi feels that taking a public position on a candidate is the right thing to do, however. It’s precisely because of the alienation issue that Rabbi Will Berkovitz, Hillel at the University of Washington’s executive director, would not sign on to such a letter. As an organization that serves any Jewish student, Hillel should be “as broad a tent as I can make this place,” said Berkovitz.
Given the diversity of opinion of the people who walk through Hillel’s door, he added, putting his stamp onto one particular candidate might give some people in need of counseling second thoughts about trusting what Berkovitz feels should be a safe haven.
“There needs to be a place where both sides feel that they can come to have a voice, even if I feel very uncomfortable [about] what they have to say,” Berkovitz said.
Some rabbis think it better to keep their political pursuits to themselves.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate for a rabbi to endorse a candidate publicly,” said Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum, senior rabbi at Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation.
He said congregation members don’t always distinguish between the private person and the public rabbi they see on the bima, and he would feel the same way whether it is Obama or if it were Jews for McCain.
People ask Rosenbaum “all the time” who he plans to vote for, he added, but it’s a question to which only some family and friends know the answer, and he plans to keep it that way. That’s not to say that matters facing the community should be left alone.
“On an issue, you can speak on the issue,” Rosenbaum said. “Want to speak on the war? Go ahead and do it. To endorse a particular candidate, I don’t think that’s appropriate.”
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A change of heart
In the time between when JTNews went to press and when it reached its readers, 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 520 as of Sept. 18.
“People are very excited about this,” he 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.”
— Joel Magalnick