Friday, September 4, 2015

My Eulogy for Governor Marvin Mandel




We are gathered here today:  people from all walks of life and from all parts of the state:  The powerful and the mighty, along with the simple and the common folk.  The leaders, movers and shakers of our state are all here, as are the humble everyday citizens who loved and elected Marvin Mandel to every office he aspired to hold.  We have come to honor, and to lay to rest our beloved Governor Marvin Mandel, Moshe ben Elky.   

We come to pay tribute to him, to recognize an extraordinary man who lived an extraordinary life, a life of tremendous accomplishment.  And we are here to say thanks – thanks for all that he did on behalf of the people of the State he loved so dearly. 

Some 2,000 years ago the ancient Jewish sage Ben Sira wrote words which seem so appropriate today.  He wrote:
Let us now praise distinguished leaders, those who came before us.  They are a great glory to Adonai, the God who created them, for their lives proclaim the Lord’s majesty.

They were honored in their generation, and were a source of pride in their times.  Some have left a name so that all declare their praise, while there are those who go unremembered. 

Not so our leaders whose good deeds will not be forgotten.  Their posterity shall endure forever, and their glory will not be blotted out.  People will recall and recount their wisdom, and the congregation will sing their praise. 

And so today we recall and recount the wisdom, the career and the enduring impact of Marvin Mandel, the 56th Governor of the State of Maryland.

Growing up in Pikesville as I did, I recall the pride that we in the Jewish community took as one of our own climbed the ladder in Maryland state government, becoming the head of a powerful committee in the House of Delegates, then elected as Speaker of House of Delegates, subsequently becoming Governor, and even serving in a national role as head of the Democratic Governors’ Association.   We were proud of his meeting David ben Gurion and for solidifying our state’s relations with the State of Israel. 

With his uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time, coupled with his sharp political instincts and keen intellect, he shattered ceilings and helped to forge a path which allowed members of the Jewish community to realize that we could fully participate in government.  It was therefore no surprise therefore that as Governor he saw to it that opportunities were offered to women and blacks, that thresholds were lowered, barriers removed and doors opened for all. 

I stand here not only as a rabbi, but as someone whose mother’s life was saved because Marvin Mandel had the vision and the ability to steer through the legislature the bill to create the Shock Trauma Unit at the University of Maryland Hospital.  And I am also here as someone who worked with Governor Mandel when I was the student liaison to the state government in the early 1970’s at a time when there was rioting on the College Park campus. 

From these and other associations and connections, I speak on behalf of all who were the beneficiaries of all that Governor Mandel did for us when I say that Marvin Mandel left a lasting legacy.  He did what he did because he truly cared about the safety and welfare of all and sought to use the instrument of government to better the lives of all the citizens.  This is how he will be judged and this is how he will be remembered.  For the true measure of a man is not what position he achieves, but what he does with the positon he attains.  And as we will hear today, he did much for many. 

As we all know, Marvin was not very tall.  (I had jokingly said at his 90th that maybe that was why he looked out for the little guy.)  Yet despite his stature, he cast a giant shadow. 

Pirke Avot, The Sayings of the Sages, from the Talmud tells us of the importance of having the courage of one’s convictions.  It tells us:  Bamakom she’ein anashim, histadel lehiyot ish:  In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man” – which I paraphrased at the celebration on his 95th birthday, in the case of our beloved Governor, “In a place where there are no men, strive to be a Mandel.” 

Rabbinic literature says that a man does not pursue leadership.  Rather, leadership pursues the man.  This was the case with Marvin Mandel.  

Psalm 72, a psalm about leadership reads: 

אֱלֹהִים--מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ, לְמֶלֶךְ תֵּן; וְצִדְקָתְךָ לְבֶן-מֶלֶךְ

O God, endow the king with Your judgments, that he may judge Your people rightly…
Let him champion the lowly among the people, and deliver the needy folk…
He saves the needy who cry out, the lowly who have no helper.
For he cares about the poor and the needy…
Let prayers for him be said always, blessings on him invoked at all times…
May his name be eternal…let men invoke his blessedness upon themselves…
Blessed is the Lord God, God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.

בָּרוּךְ, יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים--אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל:    עֹשֵׂה נִפְלָאוֹת לְבַדּו וּבָרוּךְ, שֵׁם כְּבוֹדוֹ--    לְעוֹלָם ֹ

We will hear from some of his colleagues and friends, those who worked closely with him and who witnessed up close his acumen and skills, his ability to get things done, and then from family members who will share the more private side we may not have not known.  In addition to all that he accomplished for so many, the feelings of deep loyalty he engendered and of the lasting and abiding friendships he had tell us a great deal about the kind of person he was.    

And so it is time to bid farewell and lay to rest an enigmatic man -- naturally shy, but who took on the most public of roles and for whom so much of his life was played out in public.  A man who had a brilliant mind, who knew how to get things done, and who did so much to improve our state and our world.  

Into your care O God we entrust the soul of Marvin Mandel.

Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt
Congregation B'nai Tzedek
Potomac, MD
September 3, 2015
 

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Oren’s Problem: Can We Handle the Truth?







Michael Oren’s recent articles and Ally, his autobiographical account of his tenure as Israel’s ambassador to the United States, have provoked quite a response. Some are upset by the opinions he has expressed about the Obama administration, and a number of critics have expressed surprise that Oren is saying and writing things he didn’t say while he was ambassador. 

Here’s a news flash: a diplomat is supposed to be diplomatic. That means not fully revealing one’s thoughts, private opinions and assessments of what is actually going on at the time one is serving as a diplomat.  It means making the best of a tough situation and putting a positive spin on stories and situations, even when they are not positive.

As I wrote in a Times of Israel column when Oren completed his term as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, “His approach has been to engage and disarm with charm and facts those who oppose the positions of Prime Minister Netanyahu, leading me to wonder if those who so vehemently oppose Netanyahu, but so warmly embrace Oren realize how closely Oren is aligned with Bibi and how much he supports his positions and policies.” 

Many seem to be genuinely surprised and even personally offended to learn that Oren endorsed and believed in the policies of the Prime Minister he served and that he actually advocated the positions he espoused as ambassador.  His criticism of American Jews and Jewish figures does not sit well with some.  It seems as though many of those same American Jews who are quick to offer advice and critiques of Israel and Israeli policies believe it should be a one-way street. 

Rather than offer a simplistic assessment, Oren lays out the nuances and subtleties of the Obama administration’s approach to Israel during his years as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States.  I saw up close and first-hand how delicately he handled the crisis that erupted after the visit of Vice President Biden to Israel. As he mentions in his book, he came to speak at my synagogue right after having been summoned to the State Department.  As he sat down next to me on the bema, he whispered that he did not know what to say, having come directly from the State Department where he had just been summoned to be berated over the announcement by a municipal official of the expansion of a housing development in Jerusalem. Yet, despite the crisis and the interruption of his speech by several calls from the Prime Minister, he proceeded to speak calmly, not to lose his composure and to not publicly reveal the extent of the intensity of the condemnation and the rift. 

Perhaps one of the reasons for the rocky reception to his book and articles is that he shares painful truths about what transpired behind the scenes during tough times. He writes about ways in which Obama was helpful, but also reveals the animosity and sometimes petty slights Obama displayed towards Israel and its elected leader. The president strangely choosing not to mention Israel’s widely recognized Herculean efforts after the hurricane in Haiti while citing the help of other nations, the lack of any praise for the unprecedented and politically courageous decision to freeze settlements for ten months, while not demanding any reciprocal actions on the Palestinian side, and other actions by the president and his administration present uncomfortable truths for those who want to believe that President Obama has always acted as a supporter of Israel.  

Since Oren is a scholar, historian and writer of note, his book chronicling these years will be a valuable tool to those seeking to understand US policy during a tough and antagonistic period in US – Israel relations. 

Perhaps the problem, as expressed by Jack Nicholson’s character in the movie “A Few Good Men,” is that some people just can’t handle the truth.