Following Lieberman, Orthodox Jewish Politicians More Open About Faith

c. 2005 Religion News Service NEW YORK _ David Ceder, the Democratic opponent to City Councilman James Oddo in the Nov. 8 election, has spent most of the past five months scurrying around Staten Island with his family in an ambitious attempt to collect signatures and establish himself beyond his Willowbrook neighborhood. But the political […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ David Ceder, the Democratic opponent to City Councilman James Oddo in the Nov. 8 election, has spent most of the past five months scurrying around Staten Island with his family in an ambitious attempt to collect signatures and establish himself beyond his Willowbrook neighborhood.

But the political novice’s religion cost him valuable face time in the weeks leading up to Election Day.


Ceder is an Orthodox Jew. His religious commitment restricted him from campaigning for most of October, which includes 20 days of religious observance between holidays and the weekly Sabbath.

For 10 of those days, he had to stop working before sundown to mark the official start of all Jewish holidays, thereby cutting himself off from frequent evening political functions.

Still, Ceder, a candidate in the heavily Orthodox mid-Island district that includes parts of Brooklyn, envisions a healthy marriage between an Orthodox lifestyle and a job in politics. His sentiment is evidence of an increasing willingness among Orthodox Jewish politicians to openly discuss their faith.

Orthodox politicians throughout New York have said their religious and public identities are melding with more ease than ever before, something they attribute in part to the national candidacies of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., the only Jew to run for vice president or president.

One symbol of the trend is the growing number of yarmulkes, perhaps the most visible symbol of the faith, worn in public, said Rabbi Abe Unger of Congregation Ahavath Israel, Tottenville.

“There was a time when one wore a yarmulke in the house and a cap or a hat in the street. There was that fear, but I think now there’s a security,” Unger said.

Ceder, a 52-year-old married father of three sons who immigrated from Sweden when he was 4 years old, is widely considered a long shot in the council race.


Speaking from inside his cozy home in his Orthodox neighborhood last month, the amiable and mild-mannered man who wears his yarmulke in public addressed the restrictions he faces, saying, “It’s out of my control. We answer to a higher authority.”

As he spoke to a reporter in the hours before sunset on the first night of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, Ceder recounted the campaign stops he had to eschew for the holiday. He turned down invitations to speak at two forums hosted by the Staten Island Welfare Advocacy Network and the Staten Island Citizens Against the Track, a group that opposes a NASCAR racetrack on the Island, because the meetings were both held during Rosh Hashana.

He reconciled the conflicts by sending non-Jewish representatives to read his prepared speeches.

Ceder shrugged off suggestions that his religious obligations limit his campaign. A son of Holocaust survivors, he argued that his religion trumps politics, and that his spiritual commitment impresses many voters. The public similarly embraced Lieberman’s religious devotion, say many political experts.

Other Orthodox Jews were more candid about the limitations their faith places on their political lives.

Simcha Felder, a Democratic city councilman who is Orthodox and has represented a largely Orthodox district in Brooklyn for four years, explained maintaining a kosher diet has placed the toughest roadblock on his campaign trail. He said he grabs at the chance to munch on an all-American kosher hot dog with constituents.

“When you go campaigning and you pick up a frank, it’s like you’re part of things,” said Felder, hurriedly speaking just before sundown on Oct. 24, the start of the holiday Simchat Torah.


Still, Felder, the son of a rabbi, echoed Ceder’s conviction that religious obligations take priority over politics.

“Yeah, I think it’s a handicap,” he said. “But being an observant Jew, you make certain sacrifices. The hope is that at the end of the day God will look down and say you are doing what you’re supposed to do.”

Some experts on the subject stressed that Orthodox Jews are gaining a foothold in American politics, despite the challenges inherent in being an observant Jew and an elected official.

“I think in many ways those are at complete odds with each other,” said L. Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College in Maine and editor of the book “Jews in American Politics.” Still, he said, Orthodox Jews are becoming more accepted in the political mainstream.

In preparing for the book, Maisel spent ample time with Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew who ran for vice president in 2000 and president last year. During a recent interview, Maisel recalled a Senate meeting in Santa Fe, N.M., when Lieberman left deliberations on a Friday for the weekly Sabbath and did not return until Sunday.

“I don’t think he ever viewed it as a restriction in his campaigns. He viewed it as, `This is my life. This is who I am.”’


Ceder seems to wear his religion with pride. He kicked off his campaign in his synagogue; he developed a rapport with Jews and non-Jews alike; and he scoffed at the minority of Jews who told him an Orthodox Jew should avoid the spotlight.

He also refuses to remove his yarmulke, which some rabbis say is optional in the public sector. Lieberman does not wear his during legislative sessions.

But Ceder said his yarmulke is intrinsic in his daily garb.

“I felt all my life I didn’t take my yarmulke off,” he said. “I’m not going to take it off for politics.”

MO/PH END RNS

(Sally Goldenberg writes for the Staten Island Advance in Staten Island, N.Y.)

Editors: To obtain photos of City Council candidate David Ceder and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject, designating “exact phrase” for best results.

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