Yossi Abramowitz, editor of the new anthology “Beyond Scandal: The Parents’ Guide to Sex, Lies & Leadership,” contends that Jewish clergy have been conspicuously silent about the Clinton-Lewinsky matter.
While some are withholding judgment until the investigation into the alleged affair is complete, Abramowitz says it is wrong to wait. Rather, he views the scandal as an opportunity to discuss Jewish values.
But local rabbis say the issue is not that simple.
“I would never think to use my bimah to talk about such things,” said Rabbi Jane Litman, spiritual leader of the Reform Congregation Sha’ar Zahav in San Francisco.
Several local rabbis in a random Bulletin survey agreed with her.
“This,” Litman said, “is the worst kind of lashon hara [gossip]. We live in a society that says, `Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.’ But Judaism knows better.”
On the other hand, Rabbi Stephen Pearce of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco says that while it’s not a rabbi’s job to present the news in review each week, the Clinton situation is “so overwhelming that I feel that people are waiting for some sort of comment.”
Abramowitz agrees heartily.
In an interview, the nationally known journalist said his self-published book of essays is not just for parents; it’s a challenge for all Jews to start talking about the moral issues raised by the scandal.
Many of the essays, written by nearly a dozen Jewish professionals, first appeared on Abramowitz’s Jewish family Web site(http://www.JewishFamily.com) as early reports of the alleged intern affair began to make headlines.
The book includes interfaith perspectives, but its clarion to Jews rings the loudest: If we don’t provide our children with Jewish moral guidance, they will draw their own conclusions about acceptable behavior from the culture at large.
“This [scandal] marks a new low for American political culture,” Abramowitz said. “The ground has been broken and the precedent set. The scrutiny of public officials and their private lives is around to stay. [As parents and community leaders], we want to be ready for the long haul.”
Judaism, he added, “has a lot to say on these issues, but the voice of tradition has been silent.”
While rabbis may be reluctant to talk about mere allegations, some Christian leaders have not only accepted the as-yet unproven charges, they have absolved the president, the journalist pointed out.
Even the respected evangelical Billy Graham, he said, is making excuses for Clinton.
In “Beyond Scandal,” he quotes Graham as saying “I forgive him. Because I know the frailty of human nature and I know how hard it is. Especially a strong, vigorous young man like he is. And he has such a tremendous personality that I think the ladies just go wild over him.”
Abramowitz counters that perspective: “That’s not our view of repentance and tshuvah. First the sinner has to admit their mistake and then make amends for it.”
While Abramowitz calls Christian repentance “relatively painless,” he doesn’t exclude the faith’s role in striking high moral ground. In fact, two of the essays in his book are written by Christians.
Back in the Bay Area, Emanu-El’s Pearce said he views Clinton’s maneuvering on the issue as even more suspect than the allegations. He is most concerned that the president has set a bad example for children.
“His attitude is you can get away with it even if you get caught. The danger is that we become numb to misconduct. It gets to be taken as an everyday, commonplace thing. It’s not OK; it’s a moral outrage.”
Using humor to underscore his point, Pearce rewrote the Ten Commandments for a February sermon:
“Thou shalt not have any other gods before thee…Money, Hollywood idols, rock stars, thou shalt worship, but not excessively.
“Thou shalt not bear false witness unless it protecteth a friend or person who attaineth high station in life. When caught bearing false witness denyeth, denyeth, denyeth and then pleadeth the Fifth…”
And so on.
Pearce’s gutsy stand may be the exception in the rabbinic community. Numerous inquiries made to area rabbis turned up little. Some declined comment to the Bulletin. Others were gone on pre-High Holy Day vacations.
Rabbi Yitzchok Feldman of the Palo Alto Orthodox Minyan said Abramowitz’s call for open discourse in the religious community about a private affair is just plain crazy.
“There are many leadership issues that are brought up from the behavior of the special prosecutor and the president. But most of them are common-sense things that you don’t need to catch up with the Torah to know.”
The entire matter “at this point still is unbecoming,” Feldman said. “There has to be a certain amount of expectation that someone is going to lie when someone [else] asks him what they shouldn’t have been asking him.
“This [issue] has nothing to do with the way [Clinton] leads the country. It does have to do with his trashy life. But I’m not quite sure that we expect anything better in our leadership.”
Congregation Sha’ar Zahav’s Litman concurs with Feldman on the privacy issue.
“We have no idea what happened. It’s really a degradation of all of us and our public leaders to be doing this kind of intrusive gossip about people’s private lives,” she said. “If he has committed an act that would make him unfit for the presidency, there are ways of dealing with that.”
Rabbi Alan Lew of the Conservative Congregation Beth Sholom in San Francisco told his congregation that “[the alleged scandal] is among the many things that is not profitable for us to talk about.”
In an interview, he explained, “There’s no moral lessons to be learned, because there are no real people involved. The Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton that we know are media [images]. We should stop being obsessed with people we don’t know.”
On Abramowitz’s charges of rabbinic silence, Lew said curtly, “Being a journalist, he believes that everyone should be involved in the same delusion that he is involved in” — that Jews should be talking openly about the moral aspects of the scandal.
The day-school community has largely left the topic to parents to raise with their kids. Some teachers, however, found that the subject came up in the classroom anyway, and fielded questions as best they could.
Fortunately, “most things lead to a religious question,” even sex, said teacher Chanie Lapin, director of the Orthodox Eitz Chaim Academy in San Jose.
For older children, the Clinton scandal raises more complex issues of personal responsibility and leadership, writes essayist Martin Linsky in “Beyond Scandal.”
In a phone interview from his Cambridge offices, Linsky, a Harvard public policy professor, said the alleged affair highlights some universal dilemmas for teens.
“One of the ways in which kids struggle is in being different things to different people. Is what you do in the most private part of your lives who you really are, or is it who you are in private?”
That Clinton may have a shady side and still be an effective leader may be confusing for a young person who’s been told that a good leader is superhuman, the professor said.
When all is said and done, Marin parent Barbara Garfien says sometimes the best medicine is listening.
Her 10-year-old daughter and 9-year-old twin girls seem to have more opinions about the scandal than questions.
“They give me their opinions and I try to set their opinions in context. If I think [my oldest daughter] is not understanding what’s going on or has misconceptions, then I can help her better understand.”
Their mother, a political consultant, said she likes her children to have a healthy interest in national affairs. Still, she’s careful to tell them only what they are ready to know about sensitive subjects such as sex.
“Sometimes, they don’t want to know absolutely everything,” Garfien said. “You have to know what they already know [of the subject] before letting them know what they need to know.”