David Axelrod said he came to the Jewish Community Inaugural Reception “to do a little kvelling.”
The senior adviser to Barack Obama told 800 people at the official Jewish community inaugural event, an hors d’oeuvres and drinks reception Jan. 19 at the Capital Hilton in downtown D.C., that he felt an “enormous sense of pride” when he watched the exit polls on Election Night and saw 78 percent of American Jews voted for Obama.
Recalling how his father and grandparents fled Bessarabia in the early 20th century, he said they “weren’t just looking for a place of safety, they were looking for a place of promise and opportunity.”
The inauguration “would have been a great affirmation of that” idea, Axelrod added. “Not just that we elected Barack Obama, but that their son will be 20 feet from the Oval Office, and have a chief of staff named Rahm Emaunel,” he said to cheers.