Even in rural America pit stops on the campaign trail, Hadassah Lieberman and her husband still turned off their Blackberries and lit Shabbat candles.
“Our traditions have been very strengthening to who we are,” she said. “They’ve helped us through hard times. Every Friday night, we were able to collapse, stop and think, no matter where we were, and sit down at our Shabbat table — much to the curiosity of others.”
Lieberman’s deep Jewish background and up-close look at Washington politics will be the focus of the keynote address at Choices 2007, the annual women’s fundraiser of the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay. The event and dinner is March 7.
Lieberman is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and the wife of Joseph Lieberman, the first Jewish vice presidential candidate and longtime member of the U.S. Senate. She said her Jewish belief and values have been at the center of her world, even when politics has made that world a whirlwind of travel and public speaking.
For instance, in 2000, when the campaign staff thought the Gore-Lieberman ticket had won the presidential election and went out to celebrate, Hadassah and Joseph stayed in, turned off their phones and had a quiet Shabbat dinner.
Lieberman said she’s thrilled and flattered to attend Choices 2007.
“I’m proud Oakland can be part of an annual drive to make sure they get more support and interest from women,” she said.
During a phone interview from her Washington home, she said she’s planning to speak about the challenges facing the Jewish community today, and the many ways women can work with those challenges.
“Who are we and where are we going to be if we don’t get younger people active in the community?” she asked. “Every older person understands they have to be replaced. We can work with skin creams, exercise and diets, but we know we each have an appointed time, and we need to make sure we’ve got replacements.”
But older adults and children need the community’s attention, too, she said. The challenge is to balance everyone’s needs and keep them connected to the Jewish community.
Though Lieberman said her Jewish values and political lifestyle often intersect, she chooses to keep them separate when possible. When she speaks at federation events, she prefers to speak minimally or not at all about current issues on the Hill.
And when she’s wearing the hat of a politician’s wife, she prefers to not talk about her faith.
“I remember a young woman reporter in New Hampshire asked me if I was fasting that day, on Tisha B’Av,” she recalled. “It was the funniest interview. I looked at her and said, ‘I don’t answer questions that aren’t relevant to the primary.'”
That’s not to say she doesn’t have opinions. There are more Jewish members of Congress today than ever before, and while Lieberman said Washington is much too chaotic to create a sense of community among Jewish congressmen, “it’s gratifying to know you can get a minyan on the Hill.”
Her husband has worked in the Senate since 1989, at which time there were only two female senators. Sixteen women serve in the U.S. Senate today. And a former First Lady-turned-senator is running for president, she added.
“Forget about all the labeling, the names and the parties — the point is we have these opportunities today,” she said. “It’s amazing.”
Certainly, she said, more work can be done to improve equality in Washington and the United States. (“More always needs to be done,” Lieberman added.)
“We’re very lucky to have the opportunities we have today,” she said. “As a person, in this country, we have many opportunities that others around the globe don’t have. It’s important as Americans that we stay strong and proud, and that we continue to always try and talk to each other.”
“Choices 2007: We Make the Difference” will take place 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 7 at Oakland Rotunda, 300 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland. The event costs $80, and attendance also requires a minimum pledge of $365 to the Federation’s 2007 Campaign, which is payable by Dec. 31. Women under 30 and first-time attendees can pledge a minimum of $180. To register, call Alison at (510) 839-2900 ext. 269 or visit www.jfed.org/choices2007.