Tag: Bernie Sanders

Other Women in My Life

~ slfuchs ~ 2 Comments

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.

 

Why I am Loath to Vote for Bernie Sanders

~ slfuchs ~ 15 Comments

As the next presidential election approaches, I face a serious dilemma.

Many of Bernie Sanders’ positions resonate with me, but I am loath to vote for him because—and I say this with trepidation—I consider him a self-hating Jew.

I know that is a serious charge, one I have thought long and hard about before taking public.

Now, I believe in freedom of religion, and I know there are many wonderful people who are—as Sanders claims to be–non-observant Jews. But there is a difference between “non-observance” and what we call in Hebrew zilzul, “public contempt” on the other.

When on the Eve of Rosh Hashanah, the sacred day of the Jewish New Year, Bernie Sanders spurns an invitation to speak in a synagogue for a regular political rally, that is zilzul!

When Bernie Sanders chooses to spend the morning of Rosh Hashanah not addressing any of the hundreds of throngs of synagogue crowds that would have loved to hear him but to speak at the fundamentalist Christian bastion, Liberty University, that is a gesture of Jewish self-abnegation that I find odious.

As a rabbi, I cannot deny I would be happy to see a Jew in the White House (although I will never vote for any candidate whom I do not think is the best candidate because he or she is Jewish).

But as a rabbi, I cannot support Bernie Sanders because he shows the world downright contempt for the precious heritage from which spring the social values that he espouses.

Public displays of Mr. Sanders’ self-hatred as a Jew are not new. Go back to 1988 and watch the long video below of him expressing his unqualified and enthusiastic support of Jesse Jackson for president.

After Rev. Jackson called New York City “Hymietown,” I believed then, and I believe now that only a self-hating Jew could endorse his candidacy for the White House.

But it gets worse

Asked at about 19:40 on the video, if there is anything Mr. Sanders did not like about Jesse Jackson, Mr. Sanders responded with yet another long encomium. Only when pressed (at 21:35) does Mr. Sanders—with visible reluctance–acknowledge that Rev. Jackson’s “Hymietown” comment was “an unacceptable statement.”

https://youtu.be/1PhT80FM_Yc via

As an American, I take seriously my right— and what I believe is my obligation—to vote. So if I stand in the booth on Election Day and Bernie Sanders is the least undesirable choice before me, I will vote for him. Bu if I do so, it will be with the same reluctance with which Mr. Sanders called “Hymietown,” ”an unacceptable statement.”