Joseph Lieberman on American Jews and the Zionist Dream (Rebroadcast)

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2024

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nearly twenty-five years ago, at the turn of the new millennium, America came very close to selecting not only a Jewish vice president, but a proudly religious, Shabbat-observing, kosher-eating Jewish vice president: Joe Lieberman, senator from Connecticut.

Lieberman, who died this week, epitomized a certain spirit in American public life, when the great debates over the conduct of American foreign policy and the management of domestic affairs still admitted heterodox disagreement. He was also a key figure in the U.S.-Israel relationship, articulating as well as anyone in public life why the widespread support that Americans feel toward the Jewish state also had a strategic value in serving American interests.

In October 2019, Lieberman, by then retired from the Senate, was in Jerusalem, where he addressed the Herzl Conference on Contemporary Zionism. In that speech—later published in a suitably edited form in Mosaic—he took a retrospective tone, looking back at the initial impulses that led Theodor Herzl’s ideas to take concrete form in modern Israel. He looked at the effect that Israel has had on American Jewry. And he honestly examined growing political trends that troubled him.

Today, we rebroadcast a 2019 conversation that Jonathan Silver had with Lieberman in which they discuss that speech and his career.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Transcript

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0:00.0	At the turn of the new millennium, Joe Lieberman, a senator from Connecticut,
0:11.6	was named Al Gore's running mate in the presidential election of the United States.
0:16.5	In one of the most closely contested elections in modern history. America was very close to selecting,
0:22.6	not only a Jewish vice president, but a proudly religious Shabbat-observing kosher-eating
0:28.6	Jewish vice president. Senator Lieberman epitomized a certain spirit in American public life
0:33.6	when the great contests over the conduct of American foreign policy and the management
0:38.5	of our domestic affairs were partisan, sometimes very partisan to be sure, but in ways that still
0:44.1	admitted heterodox disagreement. Senator Lieberman was a key figure in the U.S. Israel relationship,
0:50.7	articulating as well as anybody in public life, why the very deep and widespread support
0:56.5	that Americans instinctively feel toward the Jewish state also had a strategic value in serving
1:02.3	American interests. In October of 2019, by that time the retired former Senator Lieberman
1:09.0	was in Jerusalem, where he addressed the Herzl Conference
1:12.1	on Contemporary Zionism. In that speech, later published in a suitably edited form in mosaic,
1:18.4	Senator Lieberman took a retrospective tone, looking back at the initial impulses that led
1:23.7	Herzl's ideas to take concrete form in modern Israel. He looked at the effect that
1:29.1	Israel's had on American Jewry, and he honestly examined the concerns manifest in rising
1:35.3	political trends that trouble friends and defenders of the U.S. Israel relationship, such as himself.
1:41.8	Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. Today, we
1:45.9	rebroadcast a conversation that I had with Senator Lieberman back in December of 2019. We spoke about
1:52.3	his speech and his career. Today, I'm thinking about his example, what he was able to achieve,
1:59.2	and in the rest of us, what he was able to inspire.
2:03.0	Joseph Lieberman passed away yesterday, March 27, 2024. May his memory be, for Americans of
	...

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