Posted on 04/08/2009 5:51:31 AM PDT by SJackson
US President Barack Obama will celebrate Passover Thursday night with staff and friends in what is believed to be the first White House Seder attended by an American president.
Obama prays at the Western Wall on his visit to Israel. Photo: AP [file] The event was slipped onto the president's public schedule Tuesday night with little fanfare, following a letter signed by Obama earlier in the day wishing Americans who mark the day a "peaceful and relaxing holiday."
While presidential proclamations in honor of Passover have been common throughout the administrations of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, this year's Seder is believed to be the first of its kind.
"I'm really happy to hear about it," said Steve Rabinowitz, who once led a staff Seder in the Clinton White House but didn't know of any White House Seder in which the president had personally taken part before now. "It's been an extremely open White House to all faith communities, certainly including ours."
William Daroff, who runs the United Jewish Communities' Washington office, recalled that former president Franklin D. Roosevelt snuck out the back door of the White House in 1943 to avoid seeing rabbis marching out front to demand US action to save European Jews from the Nazis.
"Sixty-six years later the President of the United States is spending Thursday evening with his friends and family celebrating the liberation and survival of the Jewish people," Daroff noted, calling the event "a testament to how far we have come as a Jewish people in America.
"Jews are a vital component in the mosaic that is American culture and society. Our welcome through the front door, and the dining room door, of the White House speaks to the inclusiveness of today's America and of President Obama," he said. "This night is indeed different from all other nights."
In his letter, Obama called the story of Jews' ascent from slavery to freedom in the Land of Israel as "among the most powerful stories of suffering and redemption in human history," accompanied by rituals and symbols that indicate "the beauty of freedom and the responsibility it entails."
He also said the holiday presented a message for all humankind. "As part of a larger global community, we all must work to ensure that our brothers and sisters of every race, religion, culture and nationality are free from bondage and repression, and are able to live in peace."
He concluded his letter with the traditional Hebrew greeting "chag sameach," or happy holiday.
Though Passover starts on Wednesday evening, Obama will be hosting the second Seder, on Thursday night, apparently so that those in attendance can celebrate with their families on the first night.
The guest list was not immediately available, though it is likely to include top Obama advisors David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel, both of whom are Jewish, as well as some of the key Jewish donors to Obama's presidential campaign.
Rabinowitz said that though he hadn't been invited, "I'm only sorry that I won't be there to see the president and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel say at the same time, 'Once we were all slaves. Now we are all free.'"
White House be serving Spam on a stick.
We forget a lot of things. Just a few days ago he was bowing to a King whose nation ended slavery only within the lifespan of the King and the supplicant President of the United States. And who still denys his subjects anything near what Americans would consider the most basic human rights.
Absolutely! Why should this night be different from any other night?
I don't know. Spending 20 years listening to Reverend Wright isn't a good sign. I also think that there has been more than just a casual relationship between akaObama and Farrakhan. Biography.com used to credit akaObama's effort in support of Farrakhan's "Million-man March" but no more. (And then akaObama was one of only five or so mentioned.)
Lie down with dogs; get up with fleas. Maybe you've seen me relate my own family history which has my grandmother coming to America in 1936 to look for a place to live. And then on the day of Kristalnacht leaving her home in Berlin with my grandfather, stopping in several European cities to collect money that her customers owed her (She had asked them not to pay her until she came to collect.), then stopping in England to collect my father who was in his third year of school outside of Germany (The first was in Italy.), and then coming to America. I like to think some of her prescience is in my blood. I used to pooh-pooh people who were worried about anti-Semitism in the US. I am no longer quite so sanguine as I once was.
ML/NJ
Ain’t that the truth!
I'm guessing that this observant Jew was a fellow state senator and a Democrat. How did O come to share an office with him? Do you mean that state powers that be didn't have enough office space so that two senators had to share the same office? And even if the story is true, could O have been interested in learning about Judaism out of a sinister motive? Remember that during this period, when he went back to Chicago, he was listening to Rev. Wright's sermons and hobnobbing with Islamic radicals, such as Khalidi, in his district.
Pretty good analogy. I started to laugh when I read it, but caught myself and realized that the implications are too serious.
Yes, very comfortable in the company of antisemites, racists and anti-American activists from the benign to terrorists. This goes directly to his judgement, and should have been an issue in the campaign, since through his association he legitimizes these views, unfortunately McCain not only refused to raise it, but assured us it wasn’t an issue. However it’s difficult to make a definitive case that he dislikes Jews, or whites.
It's even difficult to make a definitive case that the man is a native-born US citizen. (He isn't a natural-born citizen in any case.) His origins are shrouded in mystery, as a former rabbi of mine used to say. And not much is really known about what happened to him after that.
ML/NJ
At this point in his plans, he's willing to be friendly to anyone who supports his radical politics and his pro-Islamist worldview, which includes most of the Jewish Democrats to whom he's given some plum appointments. Those are the kinds of Jews who will be at the WH Seder.
But just remember a lesson from history: many Jews in the Soviet Union were welcomed in the Communist Party apparatus at the beginning, but were later ruthlessly purged and murdered, while state policy eventually prohibited any semblance of Jewish religious or cultural or ethnic expression.
We do have enough info on hand to consider him as having been raised as a "Red Diaper Baby."
That's why I posted # 52.
I'm still floored over that one. At a loss for words. And so many Americans will look to him for example regarding his bow.
So Obama believes that really happened? Didn't realize he was a "fundie."
He also said the holiday presented a message for all humankind. "As part of a larger global community, we all must work to ensure that our brothers and sisters of every race, religion, culture and nationality are free from bondage and repression, and are able to live in peace."
That's a relief. For a while I was worried about reeducation camps and compulsory "voluntarism."
Rabinowitz said that though he hadn't been invited, "I'm only sorry that I won't be there to see the president and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel say at the same time, 'Once we were all slaves. Now we are all free.'"
Barack Obama's ancestors were never slaves in America, but because he is a radical leftist he is an honorary conventional African-American (or at least a valid symbol). Meanwhile Alan Keyes' ancestors were (to the best of my knowledge) slaves in America, but because he doesn't support abortion and buggery he's an "uncle tom."
The Sachs’s aren’t Jewish anymore.
Geithner, Volcker, and Plouffe aren’t on the list you linked to. Since I’m only half-Jewish I can’t tell if they are or aren’t.
They are Jewish.
Yup, he’s about as Jewish as, as ....
Words escape me. O wants to be all things to all people. Which equals, imho, nothing to anyone.
So kabar is batting .000 on this one.
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