Other Women in My Life

Although I am not 100% decided, I will probably vote for Hillary Clinton in the Connecticut Democratic Presidential Primary.

If I do, it will only be because I dislike her as a candidate less than I dislike Bernie Sanders.

Because I have written that I am not eager to see Ms Clinton become President of the United States, some have accused me of being sexist.

I would not like her any better if she were a man.

If anything, I would favor her because she is a woman. During a trip to Israel in 1984, I’d learned that the late Geraldine Ferraro would be running for Vice-President. I considered it a cause for celebration.

Looking back over my career as a rabbi, I believe I have done my part to advance the status of women as Jewish clergy. I am proud to have played a pivotal role in bringing:

The first female rabbi to Columbia, Maryland
The first female Cantor to Columbia, Maryland
The first female rabbi to Nashville, Tennessee
The first female Cantor to West Hartford, Connecticut
The first lesbian rabbi to West Hartford, Connecticut

I wonder if any of those calling me the “S” word can make such claims. All of those initiatives met resistance, and I did not make these hires unilaterally. But because I was the Senior Rabbi of the congregation in each case, none would have occurred had I not pushed for them. In each case I’m glad I did.

Because of my track record, I bridle when people say that I don’t like Hillary Clinton because she is a woman. My wife says I am jealous that nobody will pay me $250,000 to give a 45-minute speech to Wall Street bigwigs. She is right.

But like Mr. Sanders, I wonder what great wisdom Ms Clinton could impart to warrant such munificent compensation.

Yes, I believe those fees are unseemly to say the least, but I am equally disturbed by Whitewater and Ms. Clinton’s quick turn of profit in the commodities market.

There are other things about Ms Clinton that displease me, but the time has come for me to overlook them. She is not only my likely preferred Democratic candidate, but she is the one with the far better chance of defeating Mr. Trump in the general election.

That to me is job one.

As for the fact that Ms Clinton is a woman … that is the best thing she has going for her.

2 thoughts on “Other Women in My Life”

It is not fair to tar people with a generic charge and usually used by folks who do not have a compelling counter argument. This approach is all too common today and is best answered by the way the Rabbi answered it. False accusations seem to be acceptable in today’s society.

This country is in need of a leader who can make the kind of policy changes that will reverse the direction we have headed in for the past 20 plus years.

When I look around, I see a lifelong politician with suspect integrity. Why shouldn’t those speaking fees be viewed as legal bribes? The many scandals that the Clinton’s have been involved in and are involved in together with involvement in the past twenty years should not give anyone a good feeling about what direction the Secretary will lead the country.

Then you have the outsider, whom I must admit has troubled me from the beginning but to call him a Nazi is to insult anyone with a modicum of intelligence and awareness. He has been preaching to the dissatisfied in our country as has Bernie and it has resonated. To watch hired thugs disrupt his rally’s is freightening when I think how wrong this is in a free society.

So where are we? Two people running for President, both with a lack of integrity and a country in need of leadership.

Perhaps it has come time to pray.

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