My Neighbor, Barack: Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf

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My Neighbor, Barack

by Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf
Special to the Jewish Week

Not everyone can claim to be the neighbor of a Presidential candidate - I can, though, because I am.


Barack Obama's Chicago home is across the street from KAM Isaiah Israel, the Hyde Park synagogue at which I've served for 27 years. He spoke to our congregation as an Illinois state senator; more recently, his Secret Service agents have made use of our, shall we say, facilities.


But it's not neighborly instinct that's led me to support the Obama candidacy: I support Barack Obama because he stands for what I believe, what our tradition demands.


We sometimes forget, but an integral part of that tradition is dialogue and a willingness to disagree. Certainly many who call me their rabbi have taken political positions far
from mine - just as Barack Obama's opinions have differed from those of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.


On March 18, the candidate gave a speech that made abundantly clear that he and Wright often disagree. Obama condemned Wright's "incendiary language," and "views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but... that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation."


Of course, race is only one issue on which Wright has stepped beyond the bounds of civil discourse. He's frequently made statements regarding Israel and the Jewish community that I find troubling. But to limit our understanding of Obama to the ill-conceived comments of the man who once led his church is dishonest and self-defeating.


Obama's strong positions on poverty and the climate, his early and consistent opposition to the Iraq War, his commitment to ending the Darfur genocide - all these speak directly to Jewish concerns. If we're sidetracked by Wright's words, we'll be working against these interests. After all, a preacher speaks to a congregation, not for the congregation.


Many people remain concerned that Obama isn't committed to Israel. Some want him to fall in line behind the intransigent, conservative thinking that has silenced Jewish debate on Israeli policy and enabled the Bush Administration's criminal neglect of the diplomatic process.


Clearly, though, anyone who thinks Obama waffles on Israel hasn't been paying attention. In 2007, he spoke to AIPAC about "a clear and strong commitment to the security of Israel." Today, his website states clearly that America's "first and incontrovertible commitment in the Middle East must be to the security of Israel."


For my part, I've sometimes found Obama too cautious on Israel. He, like all our politicians, knows he mustn't stray too far from the conventional line, and that can be disappointing. But unlike anyone else on the stump, Obama has also made it clear that he'll broaden the dialogue. He knows what peace entails.


Speaking recently before a Jewish audience in Cleveland, Obama did the unthinkable - he challenged the room. He talked about the need to ask "difficult questions" on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: "I sat down with the head of Israeli security forces," he said "and his view of the Palestinians was incredibly nuanced.... There's good and there's bad, and he was willing to say sometimes we make mistakes... and if we're just pressing down on these folks constantly, without giving them some prospects for hope, that's not good for our security."


Yet, in spite of all of Obama's strengths, we've been loathe to admit a difficult truth: Among some American Jews,  race plays a key role in the hesitation to support the Obama candidacy. We've forgotten that Black and Jewish America once shared a common vision. In the civil rights era, I and many in our community stood shoulder to shoulder with the giants of our generation, demanding freedom for all Americans.


Obama himself doesn't share our amnesia, however. "I would not be sitting here," he said in Cleveland, "if it were not for a whole host of Jewish Americans."  That was literal truth, but not everyone remembers it.


I've worked with Obama for more than a decade, as has my son, a lawyer who represents children and people with disabilities. He has admired Obama's dedication and skill as he worked on issues affecting our most vulnerable citizens.


Obama is no anti-Semite. He is not anti-Israel. He is one of our own, the one figure on the political scene who remembers our past, and has a real vision for repairing our present.


Barack Obama is brilliant and open-hearted; he is wiser and more thoughtful than his former minister. He offers what America, Israel, and the Jewish community need: a US President willing to ask hard questions, and grapple with difficult answers.


I am very proud to be his neighbor. I hope someday to visit him in the White House.


Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf is rabbi emeritus at Chicago's KAM Isaiah Israel, Illinois's oldest Jewish congregation.

http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticl ... inion.html

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Rabbi Arnold Wolf, 84, Was Progressive Leader
Obituary
By Gabrielle Birkner

Published December 26, 2008, issue of January 02, 2009.

Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, a prominent Chicago spiritual leader and rabbi emeritus of the Reform synagogue situated across the street from President-elect Barack Obama's house, has died, apparently of a heart attack. He was 84.

A longtime champion of peace and progressive politics, Wolf participated in civil rights marches in Selma, Ala., and protested the Vietnam War in the nation's capital. More recently, he was a vocal supporter of Obama's presidential campaign. Earlier in 2008, he wrote an essay explaining that he was backing the Illinois senator not out of neighborly loyalty, but because "he stands for what I believe, what our tradition demands."

In that essay, written while Obama was under fire for controversial sermons given by his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Wolf defended the candidate and argued that anyone who accused Obama of being anything other than an ardent supporter of Israel "hasn't been paying attention."

Obama issued a statement calling the rabbi a "dear friend" whose absence would be deeply felt: "Throughout Chicago and in Jewish homes across our country, Rabbi Wolf's name is synonymous with service, social action, and the possibility of change."

A graduate of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Wolf was a Navy chaplain during the Korean War. He went on to help found Congregation Solel in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, and he served at the synagogue's helm from 1957 to 1972. Among the guests to address that congregation under his leadership were the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the so-called Chicago 7, members of which had been brought up on charges relating to the protests during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Wolf left Congregation Solel for New Haven, Conn., where he served as Yale University's Jewish chaplain and as its Hillel director. He returned to his hometown in 1980 and, for the next two decades, led KAM Isaiah Israel, the South Side synagogue that is a stone's throw from the home that Barack and Michelle Obama purchased in 2005.

In 1973, Wolf helped found Breira: A Project of Concern in Diaspora-Israel Relations. The now-defunct dovish organization encouraged Israel to make territorial concessions to the Palestinians long before the idea of a two-state solution was accepted as part of the national and international discourse.

As rabbi emeritus at KAM Isaiah Israel, Wolf taught classes on topics such as "Liberal Judaism in the 21st Century." He gave an annual sermon during High Holy Days services; like most of his speeches, it was delivered without notes. "That showed the clarity of his thoughts," said congregation president Larry Bloom. "He knew what was on his mind, and was able to say it beautifully."

Bloom said that from the pulpit, the rabbi would often chastise the congregation for not actively pursuing the social-justice initiatives to which it paid lip service.

"Even when people disagreed with him, which they often did vehemently, they took him quite seriously," said Rabbi Laurence Edwards, Wolf's study partner and longtime friend. "They seemed to be engaged by him, challenged by him, provoked into deeper reflection."

About two weeks before his death on December 23, Wolf appeared in a video urging the incoming administration to make Middle East peace a priority: "Because I know you, President-elect Obama, I know you care about this. You are the master of the situation. We hope you will do everything in your power to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians. That would be a legacy for the ages."

Resolving the conflict, he said in the video, which was produced by Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, "is more than a political issue — it's a moral issue, even a divine issue."

Wolf was buried December 26, following a funeral service at KAM Isaiah Israel. He is survived by his wife, Grace; two sons; four stepdaughters, and 10 grandchildren.

http://www.forward.com/articles/14811/

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Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, 1924-2008 -- "Jews don't read books: We study them."
A.j. wolf

As early as May of this year, he had expressed the hope and expectation that he would visit his across-the-street Chicago neighbor and honorary KAM Isaiah Israel congregant Barack Obama in the White House.

Arnold Jacob Wolf, our rabbi, teacher, and friend, died on Tuesday in Hyde Park, suddenly and unexpectedly, at 84.

His memory will be for a blessing.

Some of his words from over the years.  More to come, and some of my own, anon.

On personal obligation:

"I try to walk the road of Judaism.  Embedded in that road are many jewels.  One is marked 'Sabbath' and one 'civil rights' and one 'Kashrut' and one 'Honor your parents' and one 'Study of Torah' and one 'You shall be holy.'  There are at least 613 of them and they are of different shapes and sizes and weights.  Some are light and easy for me to pick up, and I pick them up.  Some are too deeply embedded for me -- so far at least, though I get a little stronger by trying to extricate the jewels as I walk the street.  Some, perhaps, I shall never be able to pick up.  I believe that God expects me to keep on walking Judaism's street and to carry away whatever I can of its commandments.  I do not believe that He expects me to lift what I cannot, nor may I condemn my fellow Jew who may not be able to pick up even as much as I can."

On selective practice:

"If I am right, we are all -- liberal Jews with easy consciences about jettisoning most of the Torah and Orthodox Jews who pretend they do it all but don't even want to know what all of it might be -- in the same boat."

On Israel and Palestine:

"The Palestinians are right to demand their liberation; the Jewish people need look no further than their own history to understand the wrong of the occupation.  But it must not be forgotten that Israel is also right to demand the end of violence coming from some segments of the Palestinian community.  Liberation is not enough -- we have also the obligation to live ethical lives.

"Both sides, then, must recognize the humanity of the other, and work together toward their mutual freedom, their mutual obligations.  We learn in Exodus 12 that the Israelites went up from Egypt with a mixed multitude -- they were not alone as they shook off their oppression, and, we can presume, they were not alone at Sinai.

"God does not speak only to the Jews.  The Creator speaks to all Creation, calls on each of us, individually and in our communities, to live in freedom and responsibility.  Israel and the Palestinians must talk with each other, in honesty and mutual respect, and achieve a durable peace agreement, if either people is to know real liberation."

Hebrew Text

Baruch atah Adonai eloheinu melech ha 'Olam sheh'chalak mey'chochmato li'reh'av.

Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has shared Your wisdom with those who revere You.

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