NEWS STORY: Lieberman’s Orthodox Faith Presents Practical Campaign Challenges

c. 2000 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ If Vice President Al Gore wins in November and is sworn in as the 43rd president on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, there is some question as to whether his running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, will be there with him. Jan. 20 falls on the Jewish Sabbath, and Lieberman, […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ If Vice President Al Gore wins in November and is sworn in as the 43rd president on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, there is some question as to whether his running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, will be there with him.

Jan. 20 falls on the Jewish Sabbath, and Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, does not work on the Sabbath.


On the Sabbath, Lieberman does not drive and would have to walk to the Capitol _ something he’s been known to do in the past. As an observant Jew, he could not sign or write anything _ Orthodox Jews consider writing work, and will not lift a pen.

Lieberman’s rabbi in Stamford, Conn., was unsure whether taking the oath of office was work or not, but he’s already decided what advice he’d give Lieberman, whom he has known for more than 50 years.

“So he’ll walk to the Capitol, what’s the big deal?” said Rabbi Joe Ehrenkranz, the spiritual leader of Congregation Agudath Shalom. “If he asked me, I’d tell him to go.”

Gore’s surprise pick of Lieberman _ the first Jew nominated for a major party ticket _ stunned political and religious leaders. Jews buzzed with excitement over the possibility of the first Jewish vice president _ and possibly president.

“Vice President Al Gore’s selection of Sen. Joseph Lieberman is the political equivalent of landing a man on the moon,” declared Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

But before Lieberman can be elected, he faces three grueling months of campaigning and the delicate task of melding the demands of his Orthodox Jewish faith with the daily rigors of a campaign.

It is a challenge that Lieberman is accustomed to. Lieberman will not campaign or work on the Sabbath, which for Jews starts on Friday at sunset and ends at sunset on Saturday.


Observant Jews attend synagogue service Friday night and Saturday morning and avoid anything that could be considered work _ even something as simple as turning on a light switch or pushing a button for an elevator.

When pressing business summons him to the Capitol on the Sabbath, Lieberman walks the three miles from his home in Georgetown. If he is needed for a vote, an aide will drive to his house or synagogue and let him know.

Rabbi Barry Freundel, Lieberman’s Washington rabbi at Kesher Israel, said Lieberman has worked out a balanced system that allows him to be both a public servant and a dutiful follower of God.

“He has, in the past, not campaigned on the Sabbath or on holidays,” Freundel said. “He has done his job, and once it gets into a situation when people’s live are involved, the Sabbath can be violated.”

Lieberman also keeps kosher, which could present some minor headaches for the Gore campaign to provide both kosher and non-kosher foods. “At worst, it means he misses a meal or has to eat some vegetables or fruit,” Freundel said.

Perhaps the demands of Lieberman’s faith will most dramatically be seen in the critical month before Election Day when he will take several days off from campaigning to observe the holiest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, which begins Oct. 8.


Lieberman considers himself a “modern Orthodox” Jew who adapts most of the trappings of the faith, but not all of them. Some ultra-Orthodox Jews, for example, wear long beards and dark hats, which Lieberman does not do. At a minimum, most Orthodox wear skull caps, something Lieberman has chosen not to do outside the synagogue.

Appearing outside his Connecticut home on Monday (Aug. 7) after Gore chose him for the No. 2 spot, Lieberman said his faith is essential to his understanding of public life.

“May faith is part of me,” he said. “It’s been at the center of who I’ve been all my life. Without God, I wouldn’t be here. That’s where it all begins.”

Observers say Lieberman, if elected, will be the first vice president or president to so outwardly display the tenets of his faith. Jimmy Carter perhaps came close, but scholars say his faith was more personal, more inward.

“Not only is he the first Jew, but he’s the first person whose religious observance is regulated by his faith,” said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, an Orthodox Jew and leader of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. “You don’t have that same level of regulation in Protestantism and in Catholicism, which is maybe closer, but I don’t think it’s quite the same.”

Jonathan Sarna, the Braun professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, said voters will soon see that Lieberman’s faith _ and its very public demands _ are central to his identity, both public and private. For Orthodox Jews, Sarna said the outward expressions of faith reflect an inner devotion to God.


“(Keeping kosher and observing the Sabbath) are really central to his identity, much as vestments might be central to the identity of a priest,” Sarna said. “It’s what sets him apart. And to an Orthodox Jew, the one day of Sabbath makes all the other six days possible.”

DEA END ECKSTROM

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