If Bill Clinton famously was -- according to Toni Morrison and many members of the Congressional Black Caucus -- America's First Black President -- then surely Barack Obama can lay claim to being America's First Jewish President!
Notionally of course.
Unlike George W. Bush who had no use for Jews in his inner circle ("none of my best friends are Jewish") only allowed one token Jew into his personal orbit -- the oleaginous Ari Fleischer whose major contribution to the common good was immediately after 9/11 telling all Americans that they "need to watch what they say". Alas advice that was not heeded by his goyish puppet-masters.
Bush's attitude towards Jews -- like most Gentile neo-cons, fundamentalists and evangelicals -- was that they would come in very handy dying at The End Of Days - and thus bringing about The Rupture (sic) which would be the Open Sesame to Heaven. So Ari... bubbeleh... to that Texan 'yok' you were just a Token Yid to have on hand. (There was not one Jew in his entire cabinet). And you delude yourself if you think you were anything more than that.
What a startlingly good contrast to look at Barack Obama's positive and ecumenical attitude. First of all one can see that his choices are based not on race, religion or creed -- but on merit and excellence. And that means that he is inclusionary not exclusionary.
It is impressive to see the number of Jews that Barack (his name means "blessed" in Hebrew as well as in Arabic and Swahili) Obama is already surrounding himself with. Doubtlessly to the chagrin of the anti-semitic, right-wing who endure the official Republican faux-tolerance to Jews through gritted teeth as just one of those awful accommodations with the devil one has to make to achieve electoral success. In fairness to those right-wing nut jobs -- they are not just anti-semitic. They are anti-Black, anti-Hispanic, anti-Gay, anti-Feminist, anti anyone else who isn't like them -- ignorant white trash (of varying fiscal pedigree - you can be rich and still be trash) -- in-bred within one chromosome of insanity.
Just look at who Barack Obama has already brought to his team:
• Rahm Emanuel - Chief Of Staff
• David Axelrod - Senior Presidential Advisor
• Ron Klain - Chief Of Staff to the VP
Proud Jews all of them.
And look also at his impressive record of support for Jewish causes and Israel earlier in his political career in Chicago.
I'd say that Barack Obama has a claim -- notionally - to be America's First Jewish President.
MAZELTOV!
Post-Script
I hadn't looked till after writing the above column - but I just did a search on HuffPo for "First Jewish President" and discovered that a couple of my fellow HuffPo bloggers had arrived at the same conclusion -- albeit for different reasons -- before me. Harold Pollack did so in January of this year in a very funny megilah. And Adam Hanft came to this view in a more serious vein in June of this year. So props to Harold and Adam. Shkoach!
Follow Martin Lewis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheMartinLewis
There are no Jewish presidents;
There are no Christian presidents;
There are no Muslim presidents;
There are no Hindu presidents;
There are no Buddhist presidents;
There are no Black presidents;
There are no White presidents;
There are no Brown presidents;
There are no Yellow presidents;
There are no Red presidents;
There are only American presidents - or should be. Barack Obama ran as an American. He is an American. That's it. Period.
(That said, Barack Obama is the first American President who happens to obviously not be of completely white descent. But for those of us who believe in anthropology and evolution, he is not the first American President of African descent. All of the American presidents have been of African descent - just like the rest of us.)
Also-- where are the Arab-Americans on Obama's cabinet? How come Barack has about 80 percent Jewish people on his cabinet thus far but no people of Arab descent at all?
A question to ponder, I think.
very best
HAP
let's be frank, the jews have a bit of history in financial matters, much to the annoyance of others.
whoever is in place, the fact he is or is not jewish should be irrelevant except to greenwich village scribes who seem to think it is a line worth pursuing.
i am of scottish descent, and obama has been claimed as scottish due to a tenuous link to scottish heraldry in the 12th century. the argument on scttishness and jewishness is equally spurious and frankly self centred by those who bring the link such as it is up in the first place.
there are a lot of things happening in israel which have a knock on effect in america, concentrate on contributing to getting peace in the west bank and the avoidance of new extreme jewish settlements which have no credence in law. the silence has been deafening. fix that and a lot of the middle east issues will become less problematical.
Pilpul Department: [pil'pul, n. heb; pedantic hairsplitting]
1. "...in a very funny megilah" Megilah means "scroll." As in a Torah scroll. In Yiddish, it came to mean, in an ironic way (like most YIddish words) "Epic" or "Big deal" as in "The whole megilah." [cf: “The whole enchilada.” So, Martin, did you actually mean "Midrash" which means commentary or interpretation?
2. Blessed Lightning? Hebrew has its own alphabet so when one writes: "Barak" (lightning) or "Barukh" (blessed) one relies on *transliteration" -- an attempt to render the sounds expressed in one alphabet into a different one. Transliteration has no rules. To add to the confusion, “Barack” is from the Swahili with origins in Arabic which has many cognates with Hebrew. I don't know enough Swahili to be able to determine the “true”” meaning. But I see how one might believe that one or the other is correct. In any case, I agree with Martin that Barack is certainly "Jewish" as well as Christian, American, African, Hawaiian, Human, Black, White, and....
not to mention:
Deputy White House Chief of Staff - Joel Kaplan (2006–), and previously Joshua B. Bolten (2001–2003),
Not to mention:
Secretary of Homeland Security - Michael Chertoff - 2005–present
Attorney General - Michael Mukasey 2007–present
Assistant to the President – Lewis Libby (2001–2005)
Deputy Secretary of Defense – Paul Wolfowitz (2001–2005)
Chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee - Richard Perle
Douglas Feith
etc..
Your entire premise in untrue. George W. Bush had MANY Jewish people all throughout his administration.
"Barak" - ends with the "K" sound,
"Barack" - ends with the "CH" sound - you know, that gutteral sound used in Heberw and German that english language speakers have so much trouble with.