More Jews In Congress: Does It Make A Difference?
HOFFMAN, MICHAEL
More JEWS IN CONGRESS Does it Make a Difference? MICHAEL HOFFMAN "Tlie nexus media always refers to (he Jewish nation of Israel, the Muslim nation of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq. We talk about...
...Though the Jewish members of Congress represent diverse geographic areas, there is little diversity of political party...
...I can attribute a lot of that to my Jewish upbringing and its focus on doing for others and making our community the best it can be...
...We talk about the Hindu nation of India...
...The Soviet Union was anti-Israel and antisemitic...
...The impact of what happened in government was very clear...
...America is not a nothing country, it's a Christian country...
...When Jews first came to the country the Democratic party tended to be the party of the immigrants, of the outs...
...He has been active on issues concerning Israel and as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee serves as vice-chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East...
...Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J...
...Barney Frank has a hard time finding that clear connection between his Jewish upbringing and his politics though he's sure it's there...
...She became the mother of then six-year-old Lee IIeh in 1970 and four years later adopted Holly from Vietnam...
...The states of Wisconsin (Jewish population 34,700 or .7 percent) and California (Jewish population 919,500 or 3.2 percent) have each elected two Jewish senators...
...Having been brought up as a minority, in my case as a double minority because I'm gay and Jewish, there is a value of believing in pluralism and fair treatment of people and being unhappy with imposed orthodoxy...
...As a senator he was able to visit Israel for the first time...
...Joseph Lteberman [D-Cortn.1 Howard Metzenbaum ID-Ohio) Arlen Specter (R-Pa...
...Now whether or not I think as an American of conscience Senator Hatch had that same obligation is beside the point when 1 am solicited constantly by Senator Specter's campaign committee lo contribute to him because he is a supporter of Jewish values...
...It's a manifestation of the general erosion of antisemitism, and Jewish visibility becomes a reinforcement of that erosion...
...I had a very strong commitment thai government can play a positive role in changing peoples' lives by giving people opportunity that government ran be an instrument of positive change...
...When I got into the Republican parly, the parly was anti the Soviet Union...
...The pursuit of social justice—likun olam—is central to Judaism...
...I would ask students at the end of every take-home paper, 'Why do you think about politics the way you think about politics?' I would make them write the essay because I wanted them to think hard about what informed them and what shaped their viewpoint...
...Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg, of Beth Tfilah Congregation in Baltimore, sees a close connection between Jewish values and politics but thinks no simple party division is possible...
...He says Jewish causes have been successful in Congress for two reasons: Jewish leadership and broad support...
...Martm Frost ID-Ten...
...And it had a lot to do with the fact that in high school I became president of my senior class and 1 was a leader in a whole range of groups...
...Thai had a cal-alyzing effect on me and millions of others in my generation, including the new president...
...Carl Levin (D-Mich...
...And being Jewish or rum-Jewish is not going to be the deciding factor for me...
...I think we as Jews have the right to expect a certain level of sensitivity from people who lay claim to their Jewishness as one of their credentials...
...Since March 1990, Lantos has been the congressional member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council and is the founder and co-chairman of the bipartisan congressional Human Rights Caucus...
...t\ ejdenson isn't the only Jewish |-_- member of Congress to have U been shaped by the Holocaust...
...He was instrumental in exposing the Bush administration's policy toward Iraq in the period leading up to the Persian Gulf War and has recently sponsored a law that would prohihil the State and Defense departments from awarding contracts to firms that support the Arab boycott of Israel...
...Dianne Feinstein, who along with Barbara Boxer is one of the two Jewish women elected to the Senate from California, had to make a conscious decision to live as a Jew...
...That adoption came about after she did a story for a local television station about Korean orphans who needed homes...
...While Congressman Schiff says that the media made the Republican convention look bad...
...For a politician, there are many sober lessons to be learned from the halachic stricture against mar'it ayin—the mere appearance of wrongdoing...
...population...
...Willis Gradison (R-Ohio) Dan Hamburg (DCaW,)' Jane Harman (DCahtJ' Herb Klein tCMM.J...
...Our tradition brings forth civic involvement and responsibility for everyone and making sure that you know that individual and human rights and the welfare of humanity are extended...
...In the Wisconsin Senate race this year Bob Kasten, the non-Jewish incumbent, was defeated by Russ Feingold, a Jewish state senator...
...For Mezvinsky the spirit of community service was instilled as a volunteer on Kibbutz Kfar Ciladi...
...If Governor Kirk Fordice, whose state has only 1,700 Jews, less than one-tenth of one percent of the population, ever wanted to bring that amendment back to life, the Jewish members of Congress, 43 strong, would be leading the fight against it...
...Before her marriage lo Edward Mezvinsky, a former congressman from Iowa, she became the first unmarried American woman to adopt a foreign child...
...So if he's going to lay claim to that, then my expectations are going to lethal he's going to live up to it...
...Jewish Democrats are quick to see a connection between their Judaism and the activist government policies of the Democratic party...
...We lost some of our family over there, aunts and nieces...
...The message then was ili.it politics and public service were an honorable and worthwhile way to spend one's life and that it was possible to bring about change, to improve the human condition...
...The only thing we talked about was what was happening in the world, in Russia and Israel and all over...
...I was not specifically brought up with a religious education...
...Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, considered by Bill Clinton as a running mate and the only Orthodox memher of Congress, explains the connection between his Jewish upbringing and his involvement in politics...
...My jewishness is not a matter 1 think about every day Bui we are who we are and you bring whatever background you have with you into whatever job you have...
...My home was verv traditional, 1 think the [ewish tradition with its focus on tv/tfikah, with its emphasis on doing good and making a difference, was a verv important part of my upbringing...
...When members of Congress informally meet to work on issues of concern to the Jewish community, most issues attract non-Jewish supporters...
...We know that the laws are imperfect and the court system is imperfect and thai unjust results have happened...
...Senator Metzenbaum, while recognizing a connection between Jewish values and politics, cautions that many Jewish politicians do not exhibit these values in their public lives...
...We were members of a Conservative congregation...
...Of the 33 Jewish House members, 26 are Democrats...
...My dad belonged to B'nai B'rith and was active in that way...
...For me it was my mother and father...
...It seemed reasonable to me to think that if you wanted to affect the situation of people in this country and around the world you get into politics...
...That's right...
...Senator Levin's Jewish values have moved him to a different outlook...
...Anthony Beilenson [D-Cahf...
...At 50, Mezvinsky is an Emmy Award winning television journalist, mother of 11, community activist, author of three books, and now one of the 43 Jewish members of the 103rd Congress...
...Gejdenson sees his involvement in politics as a logical extension of his family history and upbringing...
...I can't sort it out...
...f Barbara Boxer IfrCalif...
...I always feel I want to be a senator who is Jewish, not a Jewish senator," says Joseph Lieberman, who can sometimes be seen walking to his Georgetown home from the Capitol when a session has overlapped with the Sabbath...
...Perhaps no member of Congress knows the effect of the Holocaust like Tom Lantos, a congressman representing San Mateo County, California since 1980...
...David Levy ffi-N.Y...
...Michigan Senator Carl Levin and his brother Representative Sander Levin grew up in a Michigan home teeming with Jewish activity...
...Ben GSman (R-N.Y...
...Peter DeOfcch (D-Fla...
...Now there are 10, two of them women...
...But it's obvious that the Jewish interpretation of those values is not uniform...
...And for good reason...
...Sam Gfufenson ID-Conn...
...1 think that's a very Jewish leeling...
...We jokingly used lo call ourselves 11 ad assah orphans...
...My grandparents were Orthodox...
...T Dianpe FeinsteinlD-Calif...
...But he thinks this last election was a setback for the Republicans...
...Quoted in a 1987 United Synagogue book on Jewish leadership, Waxman said, "I feel strongly that the code of Jewish ethics has protected me from some of the ethical difficulties encountered by members [of Congress] concerned only with federal law or formal congressional ethics rulings...
...Gejdenson's sense of Jewish identity didn't come from theoretical discussions about Jewish ideals...
...What the Jewish Democratic and Republican members of Congress have in common is strong support for Israel...
...He then went on to receive a Ph.D...
...Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota says that being Jewish has always been important to him, although there are many indications that he has grown more comfortable with his Jewish identity while in office...
...I'm very, very surprised at the extent to which I fell in love with the country," he said upon his return...
...Somebody once said children take the hobbies of their parents as their occupations...
...Glassman believes that Reagan, while making superficial overtures to the religious right, also made the Republican party more hospitable to Jews...
...Republican representative Ben Oilman from New York has a strong sense of the obligation imposed on Jewish leaders by Jewish history...
...Whether one finds that more manifest as a Republican or a Democrat is up the individual...
...It's not a secret that Jews work hard and have become very active in the ]Xililical system," says ncwly-elecied Marjorie Margolies Mc/vinsky of Pennsylvania...
...Bui I think it should be done through a system that guarantees due process so it doesn't become a tool of the state to oppress people...
...Frank also feels strong forces pushing Jews away from the Republican party because of what he sees as the tendency of conservatives to force people into a specific mold, whether it's "family values" or talk of a "Christian nation...
...Henry Waxman, who represents the 24th District of California, also brings his heritage directly into work...
...There are Jewish Republicans who feel as much at home with Jewish values in the Republican party...
...Therefore the Republican party considered both Israel and pro-Israel individuals allies against the Soviet Union...
...One congressman who by most accounts has lived up lo all of these expectations is Sam Gejdenson, a Democrat from Connecticut...
...I wasn't bar mitzvahed...
...Jewish Members of The 103rd Congress vmat...
...Ten percent of the United States Senate is now Jewish, even though Jews comprise less than 2.5 percent of the total U.S...
...My father was active in Young Judaea and a whole host of Jewish community organizations...
...And no one will be surprised if one day in the near future one of those Jews is from the governor's home state of Mississippi...
...I expect them all to be supportive of Israel and I wouldn't vole for one who isn't...
...This may not be a uniquely Jewish observation, but it is clear that Jewish members of Congress are deeply motivated by their Jewish heritage, history and Ix-liefs...
...Mississippi Governor Kirk Fordice Don't tell that to the minyan in the Senate...
...She grew up in the Bronx and .[Mended .in Oi I hntlox I bin cw school and Hebrew high school...
...My Jewishness is part of me just as Orin Hatch's background as a Mormon makes him who he is, or Teddy Kennedy's background makes him who he is...
...Though Senator Specter may have disappointed Rabbi Moline and others during the Thomas/ Hill hearings, he has not disappointed the pro-Israel community...
...But that plays itself out in different ways with individual Jews...
...While I'm obviously very proud of my identity and my heritage, and I feel that it is part of what formed me and is part of what's inside me as I serve, I'm the senator from Connecticut...
...I think it's because of an understanding thai if you become involved in the political process you can effect change...
...Part of it has to do with mv Jewish education and the whole tradition in Judaism of an obligation to trv to do justice, to try to belter the community and to trv to make a difference...
...Charles Schurmarf&M Y.J Norman Si'.ky IDVb...
...We are a highly motivated, sophisticated community that is deeply and intensely involved in government and politics," says Steve Gutow, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council...
...But in most of those meetings we have a number of non-Jewish members as well, some of whom have even been better spokespersons than some of the Jewish members...
...Eliot EngeUDN i.i 8ob FifcterfD-Calrf...
...I was far more disturbed by Arlen Specter in the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings than I was by any of the other Republicans on that committee," Moline said...
...Born in Hungary in 1928, Lantos was 16 when the Nazis occupied his country...
...He feels that non-Jews could learn some lessons from Jewish sources...
...I think that is very much my tradition...
...Howard Be/man (OCatiU Ben Cardin (D-Md.J Sam Coppersmith (D-Ara...
...PadWellstonelD-Miroi.l HOUSE: i tpi ^ „T Gary Aekerman (D-N.Y...
...I believe that people are individually responsible for their own actions...
...He will be joined this year by Lynn Schenk from San Diego, who is also the child of survivors...
...To Lieberman, the Jewish connection to the Democratic party is also a matter of history...
...And then, of course, Roosevelt cemented that relationship and for another generation Kennedy did...
...But it's only fair to point out that I see many Jews in public life who have less of that Jewish social conscience than I consider to be a part of my upbringing...
...Nevertheless, she later converted to Judaism...
...He came to the United States on a Hillel Foundation scholarship in 1947 to study at the University of Washington in Seattle...
...We always discussed history and politics at home clearly because of what had happened in Europe...
...intervention on behalf of Soviet Jews...
...A Washington Post headline called her The Woman Who's Doing It All...
...Feinstein's fatheV was Jewish and mother was Catholic...
...My uncle was the head of the federation," says Senator Levin...
...support for Israel and U.S...
...Our community has a verv strong sense of belonging to something larger than ourselves and run family...
...I think there's a keen awareness of life and the importance of life in our Jewish tradition...
...And while it's highly unlikely that you'll see these 10 Jews praying together on the Senate floor, this election represents a milestone in American Jewish political life...
...Whether those votes are from Jewish members is of little concern...
...As a staunch supporter of Israel in the Senate, Specter received substantial Jewish support in his reelection bid...
...RonWyden (OOteg I Sidney Yates (MM DickZiminer (R-M JI 'Newly elected...
...I went with my folks at a very early age to Germany and saw firsthand the brown shirts marching," Oilman says...
...We were bat mit/vahed...
...States as diverse as New Mexico (with 6,400 Jews, or .4 percent), Vermont (with 4,800 Jews or .9 percent) and Ohio (with 130,800 Jews or 1.2 percent) and cities like Wichita (with only 1,000 Jews) are electing Jewish representatives...
...Gejdenson is second in seniority in the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade...
...Oilman is apologetic...
...Everybody 1 knew spoke with an accent, had a tattoo (not the kind you get willingly) and had some kind of farm," Gejdenson says...
...We—the Jewish people—have seen government go both wavs...
...There's been this incredible premium placed on education and an incredible premium placed on family...
...It shows that antisemitism as a social, economic and political force is drastically reduced," says Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts...
...I think there's a social conscience that many of us have...
...in international economics from the University of California at Berkeley...
...I think Jews have a sense of community activism," savs Senator Levin, "that somehow we're responsible for everybody in our community, not just our family...
...Schiff considers himself "conservative" on criminal justice issues and supports the death penalty...
...In 1963 there were two Jewish senators...
...While both are supporters of Israel, the bulk of the money from pro-Israel political action committees went to Kasten, who has a proven Senate record and fought hard for the loan guarantees...
...The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Wellstone describes Judaism as a "daily negotiation with God" that helps us pursue living our lives morally...
...I think our speakers were a very poor choice...
...Lantos' experiences have left a strong imprint on his political career...
...He was placed in a labor camp near Budapest and later became part of the anti-Nazi underground...
...We didn't talk about sports and other things...
...David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, in Washington, D.C., agrees with Senator Metzenbaum...
...Senator Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio believes that any formal Jewish caucus or group is unnecessary and might jeopardize the broad base of support these issues have...
...1 believe thai is something inherent in Jewish tradition...
...My personal experience has been one of being very welcome in the Republican party both in New Mexico and nationally...
...Congressman Steve Schiff grew up in Chicago and moved to New Mexico when he was 21...
...While in 1975 seven of 12 Jewish members of Congress represented largely Jewish districts in New York, the 43 Jewish members of the 103rd Congress represent diverse communities all over the United States...
...We were brought up really respecting the family unit," she said...
...And just as Representative Lowey stresses a connection between her Judaism and Izedakah, Schiff stresses his Judaism and concern for justice, "On criminal law I think Jews have a long history of believing in justice...
...Representative Nita Lowey, reelected lo serve a third term, also sees a direct connection between Jewish values and her decision lo gel involved in Democratic politics...
...Gejdenson is the child of Holocaust survivors and was horn in a displaced persons camp in Esclnvege, Germany in 1948...
...My parents were very Reform...
...After the war he became a leader in the early anti-Communist student movement in Budapest...
...Then put that together with the fact that 1 was IS in 1960 when Senator Kciincdv became President Kennedy...
...The convention hurt and George Bush put a lot of Jews off...
...By every indication, the new Jewish members of the 103rd Congress will not be any different...
...Tom Lantos {O-CM I Sander Levm ID-Mich...
...Also, our tradition keeps us deeply concerned about persecuted people...
...I'd like to think that the Democratic parry is a more logical home for people who bring in these values...
...I want to be held to the standard that any other senator is held to...
...Today 33 of the 435 members of the House (7.5 percent) are Jewish, with four women...
...Time and again Jews have been the most vocal and effective leaders on these causes...
...Historically the connection to the Democratic party is even stronger...
...In 1965, of the 15 Jewish members of the House, 14 were Democrats...
...Dan Gfekman ID-Kans...
...However, we identified as Jews...
...We could have done better in our message to the American people and not taken such harsh attitudes as we heard in the opening portions of the convention...
...This phenomenon is also true of Irish Americans and Italian Americans who at one lime tended to represent onlv their ethnic group and now can he found all over the place...
...Oenator Levin recalls the lime .\after the 1967 Detroit riots: "I Ufelt my community was hurling...
...It's evidence of assimilation," sain Nathan Polsby, a professor of political science at the University of California at Berkeley who studies Congress...
...A consistent supporter of foreign aid to Israel, Gejdenson has also been working to lighten U.S...
...I expect them all to exhibit a certain sensitivity and human decency and I'll vine for the ones who do and I won't vote tor the ones who don't...
...Schiff grew up a Democrat but switched parties in 1977, after increasing disenchantment with the Democrats...
...Jewish members of'Congress will be the first to stand up and fight for Jewish concerns, whether it's combating antisemitism, securing separation of church and state, strengthening U.S...
...After 18 months in the camp, his family emigrated to the United States where, after settling near relatives in Boston for a short time, his father, using money from the Free Loan Society (Millis (Jwsrd), bought a small daily farm in Bozrah, Connecticut...
...In addition to her two adopted children, her husband has four children from a previous marriage, they are the legal guardian of three more, and they have two natural born sons of their own...
...Marjorie Mezvwsky (Dfa,)* « JaryNadler (Tm Y.J* Berne Santos fl-Vtl LyrniSr'iPnkfTKBliU" Steve Scinff (RAImn...
...Rabbi Wohtberg has the same expectations of all elected officials...
...As the senior Jewish member of the United States Senate I will often convene groups that work on legislation pertaining to Israel...
...But never only Jews...
...export control laws to make it harder for countries that support terrorists to acquire technology with military applications...
...Russ Feingolu (D-Wisc...
...Herb Kohl (D-Wisc...
...Organizations that lobby Congress on Jewish issues generally expect Jewish members to be supportive...
...On several occasions around the time of the Civil War, American evangelicals campaigned for a constitutional amendment that would acknowledge Christianity as America's religion and recognize Jesus as God...
...You couldn't be around my parents without understandingjew-ish justice...
...It is part of Jewish tradition to be part of the world, to be part of how government works...
...Jack Moline, the rabbi of Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria, Virginia and chairman of the Social Justice Committee for the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly, says that his expectations of Jewish members of Congress include how that member portrays his or her Jewishness...
...We've seen government used lor evil but we've also seen government used as an instrument of good...
...Obviously everything about me was relevant and being Jewish has bfeen a major part of my life...
...In this case, if nothing else, there is a prohibition against embarrassing people in public...
...Of the 10 Jewish senators in the 103rd Congress, only Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is a Republican...
...After attending public schools in San Francisco, she went to high school at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic school...
...Unknown to the Minnesota Jewish community before his 1990 defeat of two-term Republican Senator Rudy Boschwitz, Wellstone reportedly keeps a stack of books on his nightstand and gets up early every morning to study Jewish philosophy and prophets...
...Mv mother was verv active in Hadassah and she was gone almost every afternoon...
...Like Lowey, Marjorie Margolies Mezvinsky has made a similar connection between her non-stop community activity and her Judaism...
...Mv father and mother were both Zionists...
...In 1977 there were five...
...Henr* Waxrnan ir>Caiif...
...And that stirred up a lot of inner feelings about paying more attention to what's going on about us throughout the world...
...I was a teacher for 22 years," he says...
...Ronald Reagan helped bring more Jews into the Republican party," says James Glassman, editor of the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call "From 1981 to 1985 there were an equal number of Democrat and Republican Jews in the Senate...
...Nila Lowey (Dfl.Y...
...Those that prey upon society should be removed from society...
...We've been encouraged by our tradition to pursue justice," he says...
...Senator Lieberman acknowledges the Republican connection to Jewish value5 and feels that the Jewish connection to the Democratic party can be overstated...
...But their primary objective is to get enough votes to pass their agenda...
...So 1 felt very much welcome in the Republican party...
...We should not inflict the ultimate penalty where there's a possibility of mistake...
...Eric Fingwtlut ID-Ohio}* Barney Frank (fJ-Mass...
Vol. 18 • February 1993 • No. 1
