new york | Washington spinmasters William Kristol and James Carville traded their typical quick-witted takes on the presidential election in a plenary session at the annual gathering of the North American Jewish federation system.
But the real zinger came from the master of ceremonies.
Shoshana Cardin dismayed some members of the audience last week — and delighted others — with her prepared remarks on the challenges the Jewish community faces under the Bush administration.
“There is a contradiction between our agenda and the Republican sweep,” said Cardin, a past president of the federation system. “The struggle to adapt to an agenda that is as Christian” as the Republican agenda, she said, “is our struggle.”
She also said President Bush’s comments in his first news conference after re-election, when he pledged to “reach out to all who share my goals,” were troubling.
“That doesn’t exactly include me,” Cardin said in her remarks Nov. 15. “To reach out means to all, not only to those who share his goals.”
Cardin’s speech was one of two clear ripples the presidential election sent through the United Jewish Communities’ General Assembly, held Nov. 14-17 in Cleveland.
The second ripple, over whether to send Bush a letter congratulating him on his election victory, was further proof that the Jewish community hasn’t completely come together in support of the administration a few weeks after a bitterly divisive election.
Cardin is a registered Democrat, but said that she voted for Bush because she believes he understands the importance of the war on terrorism and has the strength to wage it.
Though some in the audience took offense at Cardin’s comments, she said they weren’t meant to bash the president but to stress the need for the Jewish community to emphasize its own values, which sometimes may clash with Christian ones.
“We have to recognize that we are in a wonderful host country, but the calendar is Christian and the values that are being espoused now by ‘Middle America,’ if you will, are Christian values, and we have to speak up and express our values, which are not identical,” she said. She noted, for example, the difference in religious Christian and Jewish views about when life begins.
Not everyone took Cardin’s remarks at the G.A. as she intended them.
At least one federation director, who asked to remain anonymous, walked out of the session because he found the talk inappropriately partisan. While Cardin’s words did win some applause, several in the audience said Cardin had exploited her role, using the stage as a bully pulpit.
“I don’t believe the G.A. is the forum for it,” Robert Goldberg, chairman of the UJC’s board of trustees, said of Cardin’s comments.
The second political controversy came at a joint meeting of the UJC governing bodies, the board of trustees and delegate assembly, during debate on a motion to congratulate Bush on his re-election. The motion passed the delegate assembly nearly unanimously, but not before a round of public comments showed that some took issue with the idea.
The debate shows “that there are lingering tensions within the Jewish community, which I think reflect the fact that there are lingering tensions within the American community,” said Eric Stillman, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans.
JTA Washington Bureau Chief Ron Kampeas contributed to this story.