Growing up in Connecticut in the 1980’s I remember the buzz surrounding our State’s Attorney general, Joe Lieberman. Joe was born and raised in Stamford, CT and attended Yale University (in my hometown of New Haven). Although he lived in Stamford, Joe had family in New Haven that attended the same shul as we did. My friend’s parents set Joe up with his wife Hadassah. Joe would occasionally visit his family in New Haven, and he was the talk of the town when he attended the Young Israel of New Haven. Our pride in Joe became even greater when in 1989 he defeated incumbent Republican Lowell Weicker to become our US Senator. An interesting fact about that first Senate victory (the biggest upset of that election cycle) is that Joe won with the support of conservative Republicans, including National Review publisher William F. Buckley. Senator Lieberman became known as a pragmatist, willing to work with politicians from either party in order to further his goals and his agenda. He was also a centrist, unwilling to “sell his soul” to any ideology or party. He supported issues and causes that he was passionate about, regardless of which party sponsored them. A good example of this is that Senator Lieberman supported President George Bush and his launching of the Iraq War, even though it was unpopular among Democrats. This decision led to Joe losing the Democratic primary for Senator to a candidate who was purely aligned with the policies of the Democratic Party. Lucky for Joe, the winner of the primary still needs to win the general election. In 2006 Joe ran as an independent after losing the primary, and won the general election to retain his Senate seat.
Joe Lieberman will go down in history as the first Jewish person to run for Vice President. In 2000, Joe ran on the Democratic Presidential ticket as Al Gore’s Vice President, and he came with 537 votes of winning. (I understand that those who were living in Florida during the 2000 election recount still have anxiety whenever they hear the word “chad”.)
Not only was Joe Lieberman a Jew and a proud Jew; he was also an observant Jew. The headline on the newsite Yeshiva World News first referred to Joe as a Shomer Shabbos before mentioning that he was a US Senator. Being a Shomer Shabbos is a moniker that is within all of our abilities to attain and to celebrate. As my colleague and Joe’s Rabbi Daniel Cohen put it in an interview Wednesday, that at the synagogue, the late senator would be remembered as a “mensch par excellence” who — in spite of his lofty position — hung around to schmooze after services. “He was a senator, but at the same time, he sat in seats like everybody else, he enjoyed the kiddush like everybody else,” Cohen recalled, noting Lieberman’s fondness of cholent and whiskey. “When he walked home from shul, he got soaked on rainy days. He was one of us.”
“People always wanted to get his ear — like, how often do you have a senator who’s like, hanging out eating cholent with you? People visiting Stamford would be like, ‘He’s davening mincha like me?’” Cohen recalled, referring to the afternoon service. “But he gave everyone the time of day. He listened well.”
Joseph I Lieberman embodied the spirit of the Biblical Joseph: comfortable in the highest echelons of power while remaining true and proud of his Jewish identity. Our world today can use certainly use a voice and a perspective like Joe’s. With his passing, we all must do what we can to follow in his footsteps
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