Donniel Hartman’s letter to the new U.S. president

Barack Obama and family celebrate Presidential victory

Even before the U.S. election concluded Tuesday night with the victory of Barack Obama over John McCain, Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman was thinking about how the new U.S. president should address Israel in his incoming administration. His “Letter to the New U.S. President” is receiving a strong response from readers. Read the letter in Hebrew. קרע את המכתב בעברית

Donniel asked the new U.S. president one key thing: to take his time and to really learn about the situation here before jumping in. At the same time, he also asked that the president not wait until the end of his administration, as has happened with many presidents, to seek a high-profile event that doesn’t necessarily lead anywhere substantive.

Here’s how the letter opened:

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Some rabbinic thoughts on next week’s US presidential election

We mentioned Rabbi Sam Gordon‘s involvement with the “Rabbis for Obama” group in a recent post. Here is an adaptation of a sermon he gave last summer in which he brings together the Israelites’ 40 years in the wilderness with the 40 years between the death of Robert F. Kennedy and the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate:

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Hartman Rabbinic Leadership Initiative member cited as key influencer in presidential race

This came in a few days ago – OK, we were out for Sukkot: Haaretz reports that American rabbis are coming out publicly for the two U.S. presidential candidates in record numbers this year – the early ones for Barack Obama, with a Rabbis for McCain coming soon, as well.

Rabbi Sam Gordon, Hartman Institute Rabbinic Leadership Initiative

One of the Hartman Institute’s Rabbinic Leadership Initiative members, Sam Gordon of Congregation Sukkat Shalom, Wilmette, Illinois, was a founder of Rabbis for Obama. Gordon told Haaretz he has known Obama from the beginning of his public career, which makes sense, as Wilmette is in metropolitan Chicago, Obama’s home territory.

And a follow-up article in the same newspaper rates Gordon as one of the 36 (get it?) most influential Jews in the U.S. election cycle for that effort.

Gordon says the group includes rabbis from all streams of Judaism:

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What kind of US president does Israel need?

What kind of new American president does Israel need? And can either of the two candidates provide it? It’s a topic under much discussion these days among the Jewish community here and abroad.

Singer/actor/director Barbra Streisand says Barack Obama is committed to Israel’s safety (hat tip to the Forward for bringing this to our attention.

See this interesting discussion among a group of metro New York rabbis on a cable TV show about the upcoming U.S. elections: there is fear in some Orthodox quarters in northern New Jersey over Illinois Sen. Barack Hussein Obama, but the UWS liberals at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue have no such fears.

See Donniel Hartman‘s take on the kind of American president Israel really needs:

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