Nadene Goldfoot
So many of us are afraid of exposing the fact that we are Jewish to our Gentile friends. I admire those in politics who are Jewish and are proud of the fact, not fearful. It's mainly because anti-Semitism is so high right now, and people are against Israel and for Palestinian terrorists, which blows our minds.
Governor-elect of Pennsylvania, Joshua Shapiro, is another of the few Jewish politicians open about his faith and practice. Even while on the campaign trail, he was Shomer Shabbos and always made sure to be home by sundown at his family's home in Philadelphia, even if he had meet-and-greet downstate that morning. He won't be the first Jewish governor of Pennsylvania, more like the third, but he'll be the most overtly observant one we've ever had.
First Jewish nominee for Vice President of the United States on a major party ticket, and first Jewish candidate to receive an electoral vote, excluding faithless electors: Joe Lieberman (2000)
We had Jewish mayors in Portland, Oregon:
By contrast, the high point for Republicans was 32 percent of the Jewish vote garnered in House races in 1988.
- Joe Lieberman was also amazing in keeping observant considering the political position he opted for. He was the first Jewish nominee for Vice President of the United States on a major party ticket, and first Jewish candidate to receive an electoral vote, excluding faithless electors: (2000).
- Lieberman's religious observance was mostly viewed in terms of refusal to campaign on the Jewish Sabbath. This changed when Al Gore chose Lieberman as the running mate; a Lieberman press officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said: "He refers to himself as observant, as opposed to Orthodox, because he doesn't follow the strict Orthodox code and doesn't want to offend the Orthodox, and his wife feels the same way.
- I'd say he really is acting as a Conservative Jew. Regardless, he's not embarrassed about being Jewish.
The Liebermans kept a kosher home and observed the Sabbath. In one notable instance, then-Senator Lieberman walked to the Capitol after Sabbath services to block a Republican filibuster. Lieberman said that there was currently "a constitutional place for faith in our public life", and that the Constitution does not provide for "freedom from religion."
- Lieberman was born on February 24, 1942, in Stamford, Connecticut, the son of Henry, who ran a liquor store, and Marcia (née Manger) Lieberman. His family is Jewish; his paternal grandparents emigrated from Congress Poland and his maternal grandparents were from Austria-Hungary.
In May 2021, Lieberman expressed support for Israel in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and praised "the quiet and effective diplomacy of President Biden, who was not drawn in by the left of the Democratic Party to essentially take a stand against Israel."
His personal life is most interesting. Lieberman met his first wife, Betty Haas, also Jewish, at the congressional office of Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-CT), where they worked as summer student interns. They had 2 children. They divorced in 1981 over religion; differing on being more orthodox or not, and she was not interested. Lieberman described himself as an "observant" Jew." His first wife, Betty Haas, is a Reform Jew. After the death of his grandmother, a deeply religious immigrant, in 1967, he found a renewed interest in religious observance.
The next year he met his 2nd wife, Hadassah Freilich Tucker, while he was running for Attorney General of Connecticut. His second wife, Hadassah, is also an observant Modern Orthodox Jew. "Hadassah calls herself my right wing", said Lieberman. Hadassah Tucker's parents were Holocaust survivors. According to Washington Jewish Week, Lieberman called her for a date because he thought it would be interesting to go out with someone named Hadassah. (Hadassah is the Hebrew name of Esther in the biblical Book of Esther, and subsequently also the name of the Women's Zionist Organization of America).
Joe Lieberman and Bernie Sanders may have a lot in common—proud Jews born less than a year apart, failed presidential candidates representing New England, political independents willing to buck the Democratic party line (though Lieberman skewed right and Sanders left).
But despite having overlapped in the Senate together for six years, Lieberman did not have nice things to say about Sanders’s proposed single-payer healthcare plan when asked by The Daily Beast.
“To me the best thing to do is to fix Obamacare,” he said. “For Democrats to respond to the Republican failure on health care by sort of offering a kind of a panacea for all your ills, this is like the wonder drug stuff that people used to sell at county fairs in America. It won’t work and it will really hurt the country financially.”
We have had 33 Jewish governors. Oregon alone had the following 2:
| Oregon |  | Julius Meier | Independent | January 12, 1931 | January 14, 1935 | Oregon's first Jewish governor |
| Oregon |  | Neil Goldschmidt | Democratic | January 12, 1987 | January 14, 1991 |
- First Jewish mayor of a major American city (Portland, Oregon): Bernard Goldsmith (1869): He was a Democrat before the Civil War, then shifted to the Republican party in opposition to slavery and in support of Abraham Lincoln, following the national pattern. He ran for mayor on the Union (Republican) ticket, then switched back to the Democratic party in 1875.
- Two years later, Philip Wasserman succeeded him as mayor.
- Joseph Simon (R-Portland, OR: 1909–1911)
- Neil Goldschmidt (D-Portland, OR: 1973–1979)
- Vera Katz (D-Portland, OR: 1993–2005)
Other Notables:
First Jewish Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: Louis Brandeis (1916)
- First Jewish Secretary of the Treasury: Henry Morgenthau Jr. (1934)
- First person of Sephardic Jewish ancestry to run for President of the United States: Louis Abolafia (1968)
- First Jewish Secretary of State: Henry Kissinger (1973)
- First independent Jewish member of the U.S. Congress (U.S. House of Representatives): Bernie Sanders (1991) (Votes against Israel most all the time)
- First Jewish female members of the U.S. Senate: Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein (1993)
- First Jewish female Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1993)
- First Jewish U.S. Senate floor leader: Chuck Schumer (2017) (also first Jewish minority leader in either chamber of Congress)
- First Jewish U.S. Senate majority leader: Chuck Schumer (2021)
- First Jewish female (and the first woman) Secretary of the Treasury: Janet Yellen (2021)
Any Republican Jews of importance? 4 as Secretary of State;
State Attorney General: 13 of which 4 were from New York.
| New York | _2.jpg) | Albert Ottinger | Republican | January 1, 1925 | December 31, 1928 |
| New York | .jpg) | Nathaniel Goldstein | Republican | January 1, 1943 | December 31, 1954 |
| New York |  | Jacob Javits | Republican | January 1, 1955 | January 9, 1957 |
| New York | .jpg) | Louis Lefkowitz | Republican | January 10, 1957 | December 31, 1978 |
State Treasurer: 3 below
| Nevada |  | Dan Schwartz | Republican | January 5, 2015 | January 7, 2019 |
| Ohio |  | Josh Mandel | Republican | January 10, 2011 | January 14, 2019 |
Jewish voting patterns after World War II reflected sustained engagement with the Democratic Party. In summarizing voting studies of the past 40 years, 50 percent of American Jews identify with the Democratic Party. Another 30-35 percent are Independents, while some 13-17 percent define themselves as Republicans.
By contrast, the high point for Republicans was 32 percent of the Jewish vote garnered in House races in 1988.
During the 1990s, Democrats secured at least 73 percent of the Jewish vote in House of Representatives races.
A Jewish couple walking to synagogue could be attacked today because of this traditional way of dressing that attracts anti-Semites. They are no longer safe in the USA as before in more heavily populated Jewish cities. We are facing anti-Semitism almost as bad as before 1939 in Germany.
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