Israel has lost one of its best friends ever to serve in Congress with the passing of Sen. Daniel K. Inouye. The nine-term senator, who sold Israel Bonds and once considered converting to Judaism, died Dec. 17 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center from respiratory complications. He was 88.
Danny Inouye was the senior member of the Senate and chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee. For many years he was the chair or top Democrat on the foreign operations and defense subcommittees, where he played a pivotal role in advancing U.S.-Israel relations.
He once told me that he sold Israel Bonds to help work his way through college, and that he had considered converting to Judaism. He joked that he didn’t convert because being Japanese and having only one arm, he had “enough tsuris.” The real reason, apparently, was the effect he felt it would have on his devoutly Methodist mother.
His integrity, his quiet modesty and his firm belief in bipartisan cooperation won him the admiration and trust of his Senate colleagues and all who knew him — nowhere more than among the supporters and people of Israel, where he was affectionately nicknamed “Trumpeldor” after the one-armed early Zionist hero.
Joseph Trumpeldor, who died in the 1920 battle of Tel Hai in the Upper Galilee, had lost his left arm in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904; Inouye lost his right arm in Italy in the closing days of World War II. For his heroism, Lt. Inouye was awarded the Medal of Honor, but it took 55 years to get that recognition, as Japanese-American Nisei servicemen were denied recognition at the time because of their race.
Inouye was elected the first full member of Congress from his native Hawaii in 1959.
Throughout his career he enjoyed close ties to the Jewish community, and was consistently one of Israel’s staunchest supporters. His combat experience as a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated Japanese-American unit, in Europe in World War II and learning about the Holocaust affected his worldview. Recovering after the war, he studied Jewish history and became a registered Israel Bonds salesman.
“He was a man who saw two injustices — genocide against Native Americans and against Europe’s Jews — and he wanted to make sure the Native Americans got help in their restoration and that Israel had America’s support,” said Tom Dine, former executive director of AIPAC. “He believed in Israel’s nobility.”
His voice on Israel-related issues carried considerable weight in the Senate not only because he was held in high esteem by his colleagues, but also because there was no doubt that his personal political fate was not dependent on Jewish votes or money.
The National Jewish Democratic Council called him “a true mensch in every sense of the word.”
His last word, according to his staff, was “Aloha.”