Tracy Salkowitz’s initial reaction to the news that Vice President Al Gore had chosen Sen. Joseph Lieberman as his running mate last week was, “Oh my God.”
“I thought, ‘Why did Gore do this?'” the regional executive director of the American Jewish Congress said. “I thought the country was not ready. It was a totally emotional reaction.”
But then, after thinking about it a bit, she changed her mind.
“I realized that the country is ready. If it isn’t, it should be. It’s time for us to deal with the concerns that are out there.”
Salkowitz’s mixed feelings are indicative of those evoked by Lieberman’s nomination.
For the most part, Jews are describing themselves as thrilled and delighted that one of their own has made it so far — and such an openly proud Jew at that.
But behind the unbridled enthusiasm lies the fear Salkowitz expressed: While anti-Semitic canards may bring condemnation from the highest places, closet anti-Semitism is still rampant, and America is simply not ready for a Jewish vice president, not to mention a president.
Salkowitz’s change of heart also changed her thinking: If such anti-Semitism does exist, she said, then “it’s time for us to deal with the concerns that are out there. Let’s get them out on the table.”
Her hope, she added, “is that those who would not vote for a Jewish candidate are not representative of the American people.”
That so many Jews have expressed reservations reveals their discomfort with their own Jewishness, said Rabbi Alan Lew of the Conservative Congregation Beth Sholom in San Francisco.
“Jews who are a little frightened or ashamed of who they are see Lieberman as too Jewish — someone whose open and obvious Jewishness will call attention to their own Jewishness in a way that makes them uncomfortable,” Lew wrote in an article that will appear in his synagogue’s September bulletin.
“I think these responses indicate that, to a certain degree, American Jews have been living a lie for the past 50 years or so.”
While American Jews, for the most part, feel an unprecedented level of freedom and comfort living in the United States, Lew said that reaction is indicative of something else.
“The fearful response of so many Jews to the Lieberman nomination seems to indicate that perhaps we were whistling in the graveyard; that perhaps we don’t feel as secure here as we thought we did; that perhaps the fear of latent anti-Semitism lies much closer to the surface of our lives that we have imagined.”
To Rabbi Steven Chester of Oakland’s Temple Sinai, a Reform congregation, the Lieberman nomination is putting “the meddle of the country…on the line,” and Americans will be tested on whether we’re “as tolerant as we think we are.”
Chester said although he didn’t want to equate a vice presidential nomination with a military feat, he has not feel such a high level of Jewish pride since Israel was victorious in the 1967 Six-Day War.
The East Bay rabbi said he heard two common themes expressed by his congregants and others he spoke with. “Some people expressed fear that it would make what is latent become more blatant, and then there is the concern that he is going to be mixing religion and state.”
Yitzhak Santis, Peninsula director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, thinks such reservations are generational. While his father was very happy with the nomination, “I’ve heard that other people in the same age group think it might drum up more anti-Semitism.”
But Santis believes such fears are unfounded. “We live in a whole new world. This country is not what it was 40 years ago, or even 20 years ago.”
Rabbi Stephen Pearce, president of the Northern California Board of Rabbis, said the nomination symbolizes that “Jews have made it in America.
“Jews are to some extent anxiety-ridden about being in the public eye, but when you look at things now, even from when Kennedy was nominated president, Jews have risen to the highest positions in most major universities.”
Before coming to the San Francisco, where he is senior rabbi at Reform Congregation Emanu-El, Pearce served a congregation in Stamford, Conn., Lieberman’s hometown.
“I had the occasion to meet him, and he is squeaky clean, really an upstanding, extraordinary moral individual,” he said. “It’s nice to see someone who does not meet the typical model for politicians to [have the] potential for high office.”
Rabbi Doug Kahn, executive director of the JCRC, said the discussion about a possible backlash surprised him.
He hoped those fears would not overshadow what could be an invaluable lesson for American Jews and their children.
The Lieberman nomination, Kahn said, signifies that “it is possible to be uncompromised in one’s Jewish identity and aspire to any position in American life.”
Furthermore, Kahn said, the nomination has set off perhaps the largest amount of media coverage that Judaism has ever experienced, all of it positive.
He emphasized, however, that he was not endorsing the Democratic candidate — and that JCRC is always nonpartisan.
Kahn mentioned that he saw former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo on one of the political talk shows, calling tzedakah and tikkun olam universal values.
“This is a massive Jewish education program that is informative for Jews and non-Jews alike throughout the country.”
Rabbi Steven Kaplan said he spoke about Lieberman in his congregation, Fremont’s Temple Beth Torah, Friday nighr and then opened the floor for comments.
He reported that congregants at the Reform temple were not concerned about any backlash, but some were concerned that they did not know enough about Gore.
Kaplan agreed with an editorial that said the nomination of a Jew and African-American should have happened before now.
Meanwhile, Philip Schaefer, president of the San Francisco firm Pensions 2000 and a delegate at the Democratic National Convention, reported on the mood in Los Angeles.
During a phone interview Tuesday, Schaefer said he sensed nothing but excitement over the Gore-Lieberman ticket.
Schaefer attended a luncheon with the Connecticut delegation, which he said was “great fun,” especially to see Sen. Christopher Dodd, also of Connecticut, speaking Yiddish.
He had no sense of negativity surrounding the Lieberman nomination.
Delegates are “thrilled at the choice,” said Schaefer, although he did acknowledge it was “a variable” in that no one would know exactly how it would play out in the voting booth.