Rabbi Michael Beals of Temple Beth El in Newark, Delaware, offered the benediction on the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Joe Biden calls Beals “my rabbi,” having first met him at a shiva. The deceased woman, Sylvia Greenhouse, had donated $18 to Biden during his first run for the Senate in 1972, and she did the same in every subsequent Joe Biden campaign. Learning of her passing, Senator Biden came unannounced to the shiva in 2006, much to Rabbi Beals’s surprise. They became friends, and Rabbi Beals was a regular guest at the White House Chanukkah party when Biden was vice-president. Following President Biden’s poor performance in his debate against Donald Trump last June, Forward editor Jodi Rudoren spoke to Rabbi Beals, who offered a Jewish framework for discussing the issue of Biden’s age and its impact on his presidency and his future leadership. What did Rabbi Beals say regarding this issue?    

‍ Rabbi Michael Beals is in the public domain

A. Rabbi Beals referenced the Babylonian Talmud, B’rachot 8b which says, “Show respect to an old man who has forgotten  his learning through no fault of his own, for we have learned that the fragments of the old tablets were kept alongside the new tablets in the Ark of the Covenant.” Said Rabbi Beals, “This is an example of how we honor our elders and pass on their words, their values, their lessons, and their legacy, not by casting them out, but by holding them close even as the new leadership takes over, as from Moses to Joshua.”

B. Rabbi Beals quoted the great 20th century theologian Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who said, “May I suggest that man’s potential for change and growth is much greater than we are willing to admit, and that old age be regarded not as the age of stagnation but as the age of opportunities for inner growth. The years of old age...are indeed formative years, rich in possibilities to unlearn the follies of a lifetime, to see through inbred self-deceptions, to deepen understanding and compassion, to widen the horizon of honesty, to refine the sense of fairness.” Rabbi Beals added, “It is not my place to tell people who they should vote for. But I do hope that people will find meaning in the words of our tradition and the messages of our scholars. The concept of unlearning the follies of our lifetimes in our later years is such a powerful message about the value of the elderly in our society, be they strangers or our own grandparents, be they our employers or our employees, and especially if, like President Biden, they are our leaders.”

C. Rabbi Beals quoted from the Midrash B’reishit Rabbah, 59:6, “Some people have years, and others have old age.” The Rabbi went on to say, “These nine simple words in so many ways reflect the values that we aspire to in Judaism, living a life of meaning and a life of wisdom. I often get the honor to work with young people, for example listening to the words of Torah offered by our bar and bat mitzvah students, and even they at the age of 13 reflect that they have years, while others in their 60’s, 70’s or ‘80s exhibit age but not value. I am honored to be friends with President Biden, a man who leads so consequentially because of his years.”

D. Rabbi Beals compared Joe Biden, near the end of his political journey at age 81 to Moses, who was 120 as he reached the end of his journey as leader of the Jews on the exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land. Said Rabbi Beals, “In our Jewish tradition, we don’t say we’re going to scrap the five Books of Moses because by the 120th year he’s not the man he was 40 years ago,” implying that though Biden may have lost some of his strength by this time, that should not negate his legitimacy as a leader.

E. Rabbi Beals compared Joe Biden, near the end of his political journey at age 81 to Moses, who was 120 as he reached the end of his journey as leader of the Jews on the exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land. Said Rabbi Beals, “We wish people to be 120. Does it mean we want them to be at 120 how they were at 80? No. We value the entire person.” He also noted that Moses, at 120, was “a little cranky,” implying that we should recognize that if we could put up with Moses at 120, we can surely deal with Biden at age 81.

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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is seeking the presidency as an Independent candidate after initially filing to run as a Democrat. Kennedy has attracted much attention as the son of Bobby Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy. Among his political stands are strong support for the environment, reining in the military-industrial complex, ending chronic disease epidemics, and strengthening the rights of Native Americans and Black Americans. But Kennedy is also quite controversial, particularly because he is viewed as an “anti-vaxxer,” a charge he denies. Yet he said in a podcast that “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective,” and he said in an interview with Fox’s Jesse Watters that “I do believe that autism comes from vaccines.” He is a supporter of Israel and has called Israel’s war against Hamas “a moral war,” though his running mate Nicole Shanahan disagrees with Kennedy on this issue, believing that “Israel should be showing more restraint.” What has Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in reference to Jews that has raised eyebrows in the Jewish community?    

‍ Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (53514290788) by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A. In an interview with Bret Baier on Fox News, Kennedy stated, “I’m not against all vaccines. Edward Jenner did a great thing creating the smallpox vaccine. And the Jewish guys, Salk and Sabin, they figured out polio. But now we just rush into these things, giving kids autism, and basically killing people.”

B. In speaking about COVID-19 at a New York press event, Kennedy said that the disease is “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”

C. Kennedy complained in an interview with Neil Cavuto on Fox News that he has had great difficulty scheduling interviews on other network news shows. “I’ve reached out to NBC, CBS, ABC, the New York Times, even the Wall Street Journal. I keep being put off. I’m not saying someone is controlling all the media, though it sure looks like it. I’m just saying that someone does not like me, and maybe his name is Soros.”

D. In discussing his brain worm with CNN’s Jake Tapper, who is Jewish, Kennedy said, “It must have come from pork. You know, trichinosis, which of course you Jewish guys never get.”

E. In Kennedy’s memoir, Lessons I Learned from My Family, he wrote about how he met his now wife, Cheryl Hines, co-star of Curb Your Enthusiasm, through show creator Larry David. Before things got too serious between the couple, Kennedy asked David for his blessing, but David said, “I may be the Yente who made the match, but I’m not Tevye, offering my blessing. You can ask for the Tsar’s blessing for all I care.” To which Kennedy replied, “Oh yeah, well in that case, may God bless and keep the Jews, including you, far away from us.”

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Dunkin’ Donuts (now officially known as Dunkin’) is facing boycott calls from MAGA supporters, resulting from complaints by Chris Pavlovski, CEO of the company Rumble, an online web hosting and video platform. Rumble is aligned with Donald Trump’s Truth Social, and provides a platform for prominent conservatives including Dinesh D’Souza, Sean Hannity, and Representative Jim Jordan. Pavlovski and his supporters claim that Dunkin’s parent company, Inspire Brands, has refused to advertise on Rumble, supposedly for fear of being aligned with the right wing culture on the site. Meanwhile, Dunkin’ is also facing criticism from the left on social media for its supposed support of Israel against the Palestinians. Dunkin’ does have locations in Israel, but the company has not issued any statements in regard to the Israel-Palestine conflict. What is the story of the Jewish man who started Dunkin’ Donuts?    

‍ Dunkin' Donuts (Silver City Galleria, Taunton, Massachusetts) is licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A. Lender’s Bagels, in New Haven, Connecticut, gained success by purchasing the first automated bagel making machine from its inventor, Daniel Thompson. The machine rolled out the dough which then fed through a punching machine that punched out the inner hole and the bagel itself, eliminating the huge expense of hand rolling bagels. A Lender’s employee, Harry Leibowitz, recognized the possibility of using that machine to make doughnuts, and Murray Lender allowed him to experiment in the afternoons when the days’ bagel making was done. Finding success, Leibowitz eventually purchased his own machine and began making doughnuts which he sold initially from a retail store in New Haven, eventually adding a second location in Riverdale, New York. He named the store Dunkin’ Doughnuts, eventually adding more locations and then franchising the business, while changing the name to Dunkin’ Donuts. The chain was acquired in 1990 by the holding company Allied Lyons, which also includes Baskin & Robbins and Maker’s Mark among its brands.

B. Dunkin’ Donuts was founded by Isaiah Vaisman, a Jewish immigrant from Galicia to Toronto, Canada in the early 1930’s. Vaisman started as a peddler in the heavily Jewish Kensington Market neighborhood of Toronto, where he regularly purchased coffee to drink at the local Tim Hortons restaurant. Like many Jewish immigrants, Vaisman had higher aspirations, and he decided that there could be a future in the food industry. He took a job at Tim Hortons, first at the counter, and later moving up to a managerial position, before leaving the company in 1944 to open his own coffee and doughnut shop, which he called White’s Doughnuts. The store was successful, especially when he began selling not only doughnuts, but also fried doughnut holes, which he called Munchkins. The store expanded, and Vaisman later changed the name to Dunkin’ Donuts after watching so many customers happily dipping their doughnuts into their coffee.

C. In 1935, Charles Lubin and his brother-in-law, Arthur Gordon, both sons of European Jewish immigrants, bought a small chain of bakeries in Chicago which were called Community Bake Shops. It was around this time that the classic New York cheesecake became popular, as Lindy’s and Reuben’s feuded over who actually developed this recipe. Charles Lubin visited New York in the late 1930’s and decided to add a cheesecake to their bakery’s lineup. Arthur Gordon did not agree that this was a good idea, arguing that the bakery should focus on expanding its line of doughnuts. The two split up, with Lubin maintaining ownership of Community Bake Shops, to which he added a cheesecake named after his daughter Sara Lee. The cheesecake was hugely successful, and the company eventually changed its name to Sara Lee Corporation, selling frozen cheesecakes throughout the country. Gordon, however, was also successful, as he opened his own doughnut shop which he named Dunkin’ Doughnuts near Chicago’s Wrigley Field, the first of what became a multinational doughnut chain, later renamed Dunkin’ Donuts.

D. Dunkin’ Donuts was started by a Jewish entrepreneur, William Rosenberg of Boston. During the Depression, Rosenberg dropped out of school after 8th grade and began working for the Jack and Jill Ice Cream Company, eventually becoming national sales manager. He later worked as an electrician at a Boston shipyard during World War II, where he noticed the lunch carts which sold coffee, sandwiches, and snacks to the employees. He decided to buy his own trucks and launch a mobile food stand business, redesigning the trucks with a side wall that opened awning-style for selling the food. Following great success Rosenberg opened his first retail store, and focused on the coffee and doughnuts that were so successful from the trucks. He named the establishment Open Kettle, and as this business expanded, he later changed the name to Dunkin’ Donuts.

E. The Wizard of Oz was filmed at MGM Studios in the late 1930’s. Mendel Mayer, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, lived in New York at the time, where he struggled to make a living selling doughnuts from a cart on the Lower East Side. His cousin, Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM Studios, invited Mendel to Los Angeles to make doughnuts for the cast to enjoy during the long days of filming. Mendel moved to L.A. and set up his cart at the studio, where his primary product was a small round doughnut which he called Munchkins. The actors, crew, and executives all loved the doughnuts, but they were especially prized by the elf-like actors who greeted Dorothy when her house landed in Oz. These actors, who had to that point been called Ozlings, decided that they preferred to be called Munchkins, and movie director Victor Fleming agreed to that change. Following the release of the movie, Mendel Mayer opened his first doughnut restaurant, Munchkinland, but he later changed the name to Dunkin’ Donuts.

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Kamala Harris is expected to name her vice-presidential pick at any time, and among the top contenders is Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania (by the time you read this we may already know if he’s the one!). Shapiro is the third Jewish person to serve as governor of Pennsylvania, following Milton Shapp (whose name at birth, coincidentally, was Milton Shapiro) and Ed Rendell. Shapiro had a religious upbringing, attending Forman Hebrew Day School and Akiba Hebrew Academy. During high school he volunteered on an Israeli Army base, and he later proposed to his wife (a fellow student at Akiba) while in Jerusalem. His family keeps kosher (he had the kitchen kashered at the governor’s mansion), he makes it a priority to celebrate Shabbat every Friday night with his wife and 4 children, and he addressed the crowd at his inauguration with the words “I stand before you, a proud American of Jewish faith.” He is a strong supporter of Israel but very critical of the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What is one example of social justice and political leadership that Shapiro showed when he was still young?    

‍ Josh Shapiro 2023 by The White House is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A. The 12th Maccabiah Games were held in Israel in 1985. Josh Shapiro was already scheduled to travel with his family to Israel to attend the games, and also to celebrate his bar mitzvah at the Western Wall. It was announced that former Maccabean and Olympic champion Mark Spitz would be carrying the torch for the opening ceremony, accompanied by children of Israeli Olympic athletes slain at the Munich Olympics. Josh organized a “Children for Olympians” campaign at his school, collecting donations for the families of the slain Israelis.

B. Josh took up the cause of Soviet Jewry when he was 6 years old, through his synagogue. He wrote letters to Avi Goldstein, a Russian boy his age whose parents were refuseniks, persecuted by Soviet authorities and refused the right to emigrate to Israel. Shapiro then began reaching out to others to write Avi, ultimately initiating a letter writing campaign called “Children for Avi,” generating letters to Avi from children across the United States, Canada, and England. Avi and his family were eventually allowed to leave Russia, and Avi attended Josh’s bar mitzvah in 1986.

C. In 1985, 11 people were killed and 250 left homeless when the Philadelphia police issued arrest warrants and went to clear a building occupied by members of MOVE, a Black liberation organization. The MOVE members refused to come out, and the police launched a major assault, with tear gas, gun fire by both sides, and the dropping of bombs on the building. This set off a huge fire that destroyed 61 homes in what was later determined to be excessive force and unreasonable search and seizure by the police. Shapiro, who lived in nearby Elkins Park, organized a fundraiser through his school for the displaced families, specifically to buy toys, diapers, and other products for the affected children. The campaign, called “Children for MOVE” raised over $100,000 for the victims of the tragedy.

D. In 1985, Josh learned that Israel was about to replace its old shekel coin with the New Israeli shekel. Josh organized a campaign asking members of his synagogue to go through their drawers looking for old shekels that they had brought home from trips to Israel, and to donate them to UJA. What began as a local “Children for Shekels” program got picked up in the Jewish media, and ultimately “Children for Shekels” campaigns took place in dozens of communities across America, raising the equivalent of more than $120,000 for UJA.

E. When Josh was 15 years old, for the first time he paid attention to presidential politics. He followed the news as Republican nominee George H. W. Bush selected Indiana Senator Dan Quayle to be his running mate. Josh heard some of the quotes which Quayle offered during his campaign and during his vice-presidency, including “The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation’s history. I mean in this century’s history. But we all lived in this century. I didn’t live in this century,” as well as “Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.” But the quote that had the biggest impact on Shapiro was when Quayle said, “One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is ‘to be prepared’.” Shapiro realized that he too was inspired by that one word, so he began raising funds from his school friends for his own run for vice president, which he hopes will finally come to fruition this year. Shapiro called his efforts “Children for Me” and raised $1.23, which has now grown with interest to $7.16, which Shapiro will hopefully use to launch his official campaign as Kamala Harris’s running mate.

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