This is my first ever Dailykos diary, and for it I include something directed primarily towards my fellow Orthodox Jews. While close to 80% of American Jews voted for Obama, that was not true for Orthodox Jews. And unfortunately some of that opposition was particularly vile.
This was originally written for a web site that features news for the Orthodox Jewish community, with comments by readers (often including myself). The owners of that site asked me to write an article that would say why Jews should support Obama and bag the racism. If there are any other Orthodox Jews on dailykos, you would be doing a great mitzvah by monitoring that site and also this one, and occasionally contributing sane and respectful comments. I know that most of my fellow Orthodox Jews are not racists and will give President-elect Obama the benefit of the doubt, and I'd like to make that really clear through as many vehicles as possible.
For those unfamiliar, at the end of the essay I offer a few loose translations of some Hebrew I used.
Many of our great sages have described the United States of America as "medinah shel chesed". For over 350 years, America has been more welcoming to Jews than any other place during our exile. And that hospitality has not been limited to Jews – people from every place on the planet have been able to come here and live, mostly in peace. As we approach the Shabat of Parshat Vayera, we can recognize that the people of this great nation have mostly adopted Avraham Avinu as their model rather than Sedom.
Yet that hospitality has not been perfect. Jews have faced the threats of poverty, anti-Semitism, employment and housing discrimination, conversion efforts, assimilation, and even a few killings. For other religious and ethnic minorities, things have been even worse: Irish who escaped the famine in the 1840s faced anti-Catholic bigotry; Mormons faced pogroms in the 19th century, Native Americans faced biological warfare and enforced destruction of their culture. And no other minority in the United States suffered as much as African Americans, who were enslaved for generations and for a century after the end of slavery faced Jim Crow. I myself am old enough to have attended a segregated elementary school and to remember segregated swimming pools.
Tuesday, November 5, a momentous event occurred. Barack Obama, A United States Senator with a Kenyan father and a white American mother, was elected President of the United States, defeating John McCain, another United States Senator who qualifies as one of the great heroes of American history. The losing candidate himself understood the significance of the moment in one of the most dignified concession speeches ever given:
"A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters. America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States. Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth. Sen. Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country."
My wife and I attended an Obama victory rally in Harlem on election night. I was amazed by the conduct of the crowd, which numbered in the thousands. Not a single negative word about anyone. Most of the people at that rally would not have been permitted to attend my elementary school because of their race. And here they were, celebrating the election of a man who also would not have been able to attend that school to the highest office in the land.
And that was not the only amazing event of the night. I heard this past Shabat from a Rabbi who was driving home that night from giving a shiur at Yeshiva University that throngs had poured out into the streets of Washington Heights. In this neighborhood, where flags of the Dominican Republic, but rarely United States flags, are often seen, the entire crowd was waving American flags and loudly chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!" Throngs in Lafayette Park in Washington, DC, directly across from the White House, which is usually populated by demonstrators for every nutty cause one can imagine, instead waved American flags and sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America" – the latter having been written by a Jewish immigrant to America.
Two countries in Africa where President-elect Obama has living relatives, Kenya and Uganda, declared national holidays.
The very next day, President-elect Obama offered the top position on his White House staff to a Jew, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who attends an Orthodox synagogue, whose father fought in the Irgun, and who sends his children to a Jewish Day School – with not a single word of objection from non-Jewish Americans on the basis of Rep. Emanuel’s religion.
Jews can be proud of these accomplishments in this nation that has adopted us. America has been like no other place during our exile. Yes, there are anti-Semites – I personally have reported to the authorities in the Bronx where I live and work two swastikas during the past five years. But that pales in comparison to the incredible hospitality that we have received here. America is the true proof of the statement from Parshat Lech Lecha, "And I will bless those who bless you".
But we can all agree that an America that is strong, respected, and a force for good in the world is a positive force for Jews. Many of us did not support Sen. Obama’s election and have concerns that he may make policy decisions with which we disagree. Much of the rhetoric in the past campaign has been particularly nasty, with accusations that are long-debunked (there is a birth certificate for Sen. Obama in the Hawaii records), irrelevant (even if Sen. Obama were born outside of the United States, he is still a born citizen because his mother was a US citizen), inconsistent (you can’t be a Muslim, a Christian, and a Communist – or even any two of those – at the same time), or unfair (yes, some of Sen. Obama’s past associates have troubling histories, but so do some of Sen. McCain’s).
Even worse, some of the rhetoric has been actually racist. I regret that some of that vileness has come from my fellow frum Jews. Continuing in that vein will not help America to be that positive force, and will not present Judaism in a positive light to our fellow citizens. Indeed racist dialogue is inconsistent with Torah principles, as Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik z’tz’l point out in Logic of the Heart, Logic of the Mind:
"From the standpoint of the Torah, there can be no distinction between one human being and another on the basis or race or color. Any discrimination shown to a human being on account of the color of his skin constitutes loathsome barbarity. It must be conceded that the Torah recognized a distinction between a Jew and a non-Jew. This distinction, however, is not based upon race, origin or color, but rather upon k'dushah, the holiness endowed by having been given and having accepted the Torah. Furthermore, the distinction between Jew and non-Jew does not involve any concept of inferiority but is based primarily upon the unique and special burdens that are incumbent upon Jews."
Indeed there is no sense of racism in Rabbinic Judaism; I personally know people of every race who have undergone halachic conversions and become full-fledged Jews. To spout racist jargon on a frum internet site is to misrepresent the Torah and to degrade our own purpose as Jews to provide a light to the nations. Instead of continuing this repulsive pettiness, we should listen to Sen. McCain:
"I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited. Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans."
Finally, we should all remember that as Jews we subscribe to the idea that H’K’B’H is responsible for everything in the world. And as we say in the "Berich shemei" prayer, "Not in any man do I put trust, nor in any angel do I rely – only on the God of heaven Who is the God of truth, Whose Torah is truth and Whose prophets are true and Who acts liberally with kindness in truth." (Artscroll translation.) Nothing, absolutely nothing, ever happens in HaShem’s universe by mistake. Everything that happens in HaShem’s universe presents us with the opportunity to elevate ourselves as Jews, and this momentous event is no exception.
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For those unfamiliar, I offer a few loose translations of some Hebrew words included in the essay:
"medinah shel chesed" -- land of hospitality
"Shabat" -- sabbath
"Parshat Vayera" -- the section of the Torah (5 books of Moses) read in synagogue this week, covering Genesis chapters 18-22.
"Avraham avinu" -- literally "Abraham our father", the patriach Abraham from the bible.
"shiur" -- a class in Torah
"Parshat Lech Lecha" -- the section of the Torah read last week, covering Genesis chapters 12-17.
"z'tz'l" -- of blessed righteous memory, an appellation for a great man or woman who has passed on.
"k'dushah" -- holiness
"H'K'B'H" -- abbreviation for Ha Kadosh Baruch Hu, "The Holy Blessed One" or "The Holy One, Blessed is He", always referring to God
"Berich shemei" -- an Aramaic (not Hebrew) phrase meaning "Blessed is his name", referring to a prayer beginning with those words that is taken from the Jewish mystical work "The Zohar" and is said in most traditional synagogues whenever the torah scroll is take out to be read.
"HaShem" -- literally, "The Name" referring to the name of God and is often written instead of "God".