The following is a Chicago Tribune article:
Some might assume that the idea of a Rahm Emanuel candidacy for mayor would be cause for celebration along Devon Avenue, the longtime rialto of Chicago’s Jewish community.
After all, Emanuel attended an Orthodox synagogue before going from Chicago to the White House, and his family is highly respected in West Rogers Park, where his father, Benjamin, was a pediatrician. The numbers of those who say Dr. Emanuel took care of their kids is roughly similar to the legion that claimed to have witnessed Babe Ruth point to the Wrigley Field bleachers and hit that famed home run.
But Rahm Emanuel, who begins his Chicago “listening tour” this week, is about to discover that all politics aren’t local.
In the Jewish neighborhoods on the Far North Side, Rahm Emanuel is more associated with what he did in Washington than what he might do in Chicago’s City Hall.
“There are questions about his positions on Israel,” said Chesky Montrose, 32, who was wearing a skull cap and pushing one child in a stroller while keeping an eye on two others bicycling down Devon. “It’s not logical that international policy would influence a race for mayor. But there is some resentment here, no doubt.”
There was rejoicing along Devon on Friday because it was Simchat Torah, a festive celebration of the divine laws Moses received on behalf of the ancient Israelites. But there also were questions about Emanuel timing his White House farewell announcement for that day.
“On yontif?” said Montrose, using the Yiddish for the holiday.
During the run-up to Simchat Torah, it’s traditional for Jews to take their meals in a sukkah, an improvised hut like their ancestors dwelled in during their wandering years in the deserts of Sinai. A fast-food restaurant on Devon provides customers with a sukkah.
With rituals marking their forebears’ exiles, it’s hardly a wonder Jews fret over modern-day Israel. Obama got a huge percent of Jewish voters, many of whom assumed Emanuel would give voice to their concerns as chief of staff, noted Cheryl Jacobs Lewin, Chicago co-chair of Americans for a Safe Israel.
“That has not happened, judging by the White House’s heavy-handedness toward Israel,” Lewin said in an e-mail.
A spokeswoman for Emanuel said Sunday he is a strong backer of Israel.
“Rahm’s support for Israel is well known, and he had many supporters in the Jewish community when he represented a half-million Chicagoans in Congress. But he takes nothing for granted and will work to earn the support of every voter in communities across the city,” said Lori Goldberg, Emanuel’s spokeswoman.
Another person leery of Emanuel on the Israel issue is Norm Levin, who said, “I used to be a devout Democrat.”
Levin is president of the Great Vest Side Club, an alumni association of the West Side neighborhood that was once the epicenter of Chicago’s Jewish community. (The pronunciation “vest” commemorates the immigrant accent of members’ parents.)
“I like to vote for Jewish people,” Levin said. “But if they’re sort of negative on Israel, they lose me.”
Yet that very quality could be a plus for Emanuel among lakefront liberals, many of them secular Jews uncomfortable with a right-leaning Israeli administration.
“I’m sort of hostile to Israel,” said James Alter, a founding father of independent politics in Chicago.
He and his late wife, Joanne Alter, also Jewish and a Metropolitan Water Reclamation District trustee, made their Lakeview home a longtime clubhouse for anti-machine activists.
Even so, there are other issues on which liberals clash with Emanuel, said political consultant Don Rose, who is Jewish, a reigning guru of the independent movement.
“We progressives found him unresponsive as a congressman when we wanted him to speak out against the Iraq war,” Rose said.
Then there could be a linguistic problem attached to an Emanuel candidacy. Jews think of a Jew in the public eye as representing all of them with his or her behavior, said Chayim Knobloch, a rabbi and proprietor of the Kol Tuv supermarket on Devon.
Emanuel is famous for peppering his conversations with swearing, while Jews have a longstanding caution: “Don’t make a shandah for the goyim” — be aware of your behavior in gentile company.
“So I have a small request,” Knobloch said. “Rahm should watch his language.”
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(Source: Chicago Tribune)
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14 Responses
The editor of YWN censored my comment yesterday on Rahmbo when I called him a m’nuvel. Furthermore, I wrote, the fewer Jewish m’nuvalim in politics the better. It seems my sentiment was echoed in not so many words by the person quoted in the ultimate paragraph of this article.
He is not a strong backer of Israel and wants to throw
Bibi under the bus. I would certainly not vote for this
leftist.
What a fool I am. Here I was, thinking that the Chofetz Chaim only meant “people we agree with” when he wrote “Guard Your Tongue”
2pence, when someone like Rahm Emanuel sits with the the King of Saudi Arabia, a man whose hands are stained with Jewish blood, and can still smile, then it is a mitzvah.
Rahm Emanuel doesn’t give a (wall that stops water from flowing) what people want him to do.
Progressive is NOT for progress!!
“Your Sister”:
Funny, I don’t seem to remember similar outrage when G. W. Bush kissed the man and held his hand…
But oh, when Hillary Clinton kissed Arafat’s (Y”S) wife, everyone sure complained about that.
Sorry, but “Principles only matter if you stand by them when they’re inconvenient.”
I had outrage excuse me when George W. Bush did that but what does that have to do with Rahm Emanuel and his ability as a Jew to get a visa to enter Saudi Arabia unless it was known previously his hostile views of Israel?
If you dislike Emanuel because of his liberalism, his hot-headedness, his occasional coarseness, his support of the 1993 Oslo accords, his support of universal health care or any other reason – that’s entirely your right.
If you dislike him because you feel he’s anti-Israel, you’re probably missing some background information.
Below are six points copied from Wikipedia.
The first and second points are more indicative of his background than his personal positions.
The remaining four points clearly outline his position vis-à-vis Israel and the Middle East.
While the points were cherry-picked from the article, they are in no way misrepresenting his opinions or positions.
1) His father, Benjamin M. Emanuel, is a Jerusalem-born pediatrician who was once a member of the Irgun, a Zionist Paramilitary Organization that operated in British-controlled Palestine.
2) He and his brothers attended summer camp in Israel, including just after the 1967 Six Day War.
3) During the 1991 Gulf War, Emanuel volunteered with the Israel Defense Forces as a civilian helping to maintain equipment.
4) Emanuel was elected after the October 2002 joint Congressional resolution authorizing the Iraq War, and thus was not able to vote on it. However, in the lead up to the resolution Emanuel spoke out strongly in support of the war, urging a United States’ “muscular projection of force” in Iraq.
5) During his original 2002 campaign, Emanuel “indicated his support of President Bush’s position on Iraq, but said he believed the president needed to better articulate his position to the American people”.
6) In June 2007, Emanuel condemned an outbreak of Palestinian violence in the Gaza Strip and criticized Arab countries for not applying the same kind of pressure on the Palestinians as they have on Israel. At a 2003 pro-Israel rally in Chicago, Emanuel told the marchers Israel was ready for peace but would not get there until Palestinians “turn away from the path of terror”
I cant believe anyone with a half brain would vote for this guy. id be surprised if he can get 20 votes
NO matter what Rahm’s personal beliefs may have been, his serving in a high position in Obama’s administration only lent credence to Obama’s anti Israel policies.
His public foul language has cause untold embarrassment to all international Jewry.
Hameivin yavin!
Eric55, he’ll get far more than that…most of them from liberal Jews who think any Jew in office is good for us.
He’s got as much connection to Torah principles as I have to a pork chop. And FTR, I am 100% Kosher!! 😉
Of course he will get more than 20 votes. Look at what percentage of Jews voted for Obama!!! When will we learn?
amazing how we look to rationalize,when muslims kill we look to explain taht it is not their culture when rahm behaves anti israel we look to prove that what we saw is not what we saw. guess what no-one ever accused me of being anti israel. i wonder why. could it be that i never gave them cause to question my attitude? so please stop drfending this rasha who is mechallel sehm shomayim befarhesia and stop claiming that loshon hora against this scum is prohibited
8 (I can only try )
In the event you didnt know, Wikipedia CANNOT be used as a legitimate proof of anything since anyone can change any page they want. This has been proven over and over again.