Lieberman.
Roll that around your tongue for awhile.
A Jewish name. Which is what, of course, is so beautiful about it.
Hearing “Lieberman” over and over these last few days all over the media has given Jews a special tingle.
There has long been a cliché that what makes this country great is that anyone can grow up to be president.
But, of course, it wasn’t true. Not for us.
No Jew, no matter how talented or political, could grow up to be president. Not really. America wasn’t ready.
That Joseph Lieberman is now the vice presidential candidate of the Democratic party says that the country has matured and so have we. It says that the country has taken the final step toward accepting us.
Sure, some of us are scared that this will unleash a flood of anti-Semitism: They will say Jews have too much power, have gone too far. Some Jews are worried about one of us being so visible, venturing into unknown territory.
And many of us wonder how the country will respond when, for the first time in our history, one of us will be on a ballot for American people to say yes or no to.
It’s natural for us to be worried and scared. After all, our history is one which guides us to give pause, to be concerned and wary and wondering.
But we shouldn’t, we mustn’t, let that get in the way of us jumping for joy and being amazed at what has taken place.
One of us is on a national ticket. Of the United States. A Jew.
I so wish my father were alive to see this. I can see the smile on his face, the tears running down his face, the pure joy and amazement he would be feeling.
He was an immigrant Holocaust survivor who came to this country with nothing and made a life and dearly loved this country for the opportunity it gave him, for allowing him to be a Jew the way he wanted to be a Jew.
He gave me a love for this democracy, a love of politics. He was deeply grateful for all this country has meant for Jews and Jewish life.
And so this would have given him enormous nachas, both for what it said about America and for what it said about us — the American dream is finally ours — as much as anyone’s.
Sure, we’ve accomplished much in this society. There’s Steven Spielberg and Alan Greenspan and Barbara Walters and a whole long list of accomplished Jews throughout society to demonstrate that.
But until now, there’s been nothing like this that says we have an equal right, that nothing should be off-limits. And what makes that especially true is that Lieberman is not just a Jew but such a Jewish Jew. Name of Lieberman, denomination of Orthodox.
This isn’t a Jew who hides it or wears it lightly, but a dedicated Jew who takes it seriously, practices it devoutly, believes in it deeply. With a very Jewish last name and a wife with the very Jewish first name of Hadassah.
Hadassah Lieberman, wife of the vice president of the United States.
Roll that around your tongue for awhile.
I did when I watched reporters congregating outside Lieberman’s home. The senator came out his front door, pausing a moment to kiss the mezuzah. Not as a show, but casually, as a matter of routine.
What an extraordinary, magical, Jewish moment.
Political experts on TV wondered what “observing the Sabbath,” means exactly and pointed out that, in October, Lieberman wouldn’t be able to campaign “the two days of Rosh Hashanah, on Yom Kippur and the first and last days of Sukkos.”
Sukkos. Part of the national dialogue, a factor in a presidential race.
What a source of pride for Jews it has been to hear how Lieberman has been described these last few days. No one, not even Republicans, has had one bad thing to say and most have had many good things to say. A man of integrity, honor, a consensus builder, a kind and gentle soul, someone with a good sense of humor. A politician who does what he believes, a moral voice.
These are some of the qualities ascribed to Lieberman in the media, after, of course, “an Orthodox Jew.” And that he is a moderate.
Judaism is not always a moderate kind of place. Just before we learned the happy news about Lieberman, we learned of how an Orthodox rabbi disgraced himself and desecrated both God and the sacred memory of the 6 million Jews by saying they died because they were “reincarnations of the souls of sinners.”
I’m so glad my father was not alive to hear that.
Lieberman is a moderate, an Orthodox Jew who is pro-choice, a Jew considerate of all and admired by all, even and especially those who see and do things differently than he does. A Jew whose very moderation commands respect and makes him such a role model.
It is his moral principles, his strong values — as demonstrated when he became the first prominent Democrat to label Bill Clinton’s actions with Monica for what they were — that solidified his position as “the conscience of the Senate” and paved the way for Al Gore to choose him for his character, courage, integrity.
Next Wednesday night, I will be watching as Joseph Lieberman stands up on the podium at the Democratic National Convention and accepts his party’s nomination for vice president of the United States.
I so wish my bubbe were alive to see it.
As a kid, I used to often sit with her watching TV, the whole time asking me if this one was Jewish, if that one was Jewish, about almost everyone who seemed like a star, from Walter Cronkite to Ben Cartwright.
I wish she was here so that when Joseph Lieberman begins his speech as the nation watches on television, I could hear my bubbe ask, “Is he a Jew?”
And I could say, proudly, “Yes, Bubbe, he is.”
Roll that around in your tongue for awhile.