By Bruce S. Ticker
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — The Biden administration’s actions beg two disturbing Jewish-themed questions: Why would a president lie about such an insignificant detail as visiting a Pittsburgh synagogue? How can a U.S. Foreign Service officer be effective at his job when he demeans Jews and homosexuals?
The two episodes are signals that bear the attention of the Jewish community. They do not constitute momentous situations in and of themselves, but the administration has some explaining to do.
“I remember spending time at the, you know, going to the, you know, the Tree of Life synagogue, speaking with them,” President Biden told more 1,000 rabbis during a Zoom call last Thursday, Sept. 2, organized by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, according to Jewish Insider.
However, Biden has not visited the Tree of Life synagogue since 11 congregants were gunned down there in October 2018, said Barb Feige, executive director of Tree of Life, The New York Post reported.
The next day, an administration official issued a statement saying that Biden “was referring to a call he had with the Tree of Life rabbi in 2019.”
In other words, Biden got mixed up.
At the State Department, 70 employees demanded the dismissal of a U.S. Foreign Service officer who called Jews a “brood of vipers,” the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.
“Jesus Christ came to save the whole world from the Jews – the founders of the original anti-Christ religion, they who are the seed of the Serpent, that brood of vipers,” Fritz Berggren wrote on his website titled “Jews are Not God’s Chosen People. Judeo-Christian is Anti-Christ.”
The State Department employees sent the letter on Aug. 28 two days after a carving of a swastika was discovered in an elevator at State’s headquarters in Washington. They wrote that his website contributes to an atmosphere that encourages vandalism. The letter added that Berggren displayed his government affiliation in a July 3 post, an apparent violation of State Department policies, according to JTA.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote in this Aug. 9 response, “I want to assure you that the Department treats reports of alleged misconduct with the utmost seriousness.” He added that he could not comment on specifics for “privacy reasons.”
Biden has generally had a healthy relationship with Jewish voters throughout his political career, and it is too early to assess his policies with Israel. Most concerns for the Jewish community have arisen from Congress – a handful of Democrats who blame Israel for all transgression in the Middle East, and a few Republicans who expect that forced vaccination for Covid rivals spending a few nights at Auschwitz.
However, Biden’s faux pas and Blinken’s non-answer deserve parsing. Neither resembles blockbuster events, but let’s look at this before a pattern emerges.
Really, why would Biden lie? How many Jews would be upset if he never visited the Tree of Life synagogue? Especially a large group of learned, sympathetic rabbis. Biden was obviously scratching for an example of his support for the Jewish people and he muffed up what actually happened.
As The New York Post points out, Biden has a record for making false or embellished claims. He quit his first presidential campaign in 1988 after he was exposed for using lines in one of his speeches from British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock without attribution. Kinnock later brushed it off as an honest error.
There is also the question of whether Biden’s age, 78, is affecting his memory. At the very least, he probably has short-term memory loss. This is among reasons why an age limit is needed for presidential candidates.
These are among some of Biden’s weaknesses that have become noticeable in recent weeks. Afghanistan stands out. It will take a congressional investigation to determine Biden’s mistakes. Whatever Biden did wrong, the Afghanistan airlift could have been a mess no matter what the administration attempted.
When Biden holds news conferences, I noticed in recent weeks that he refused to take reporters’ questions four times. When he announced the final departure of our troops on Aug. 31, Blinken himself abruptly ended the session without giving reporters an opportunity to question him. What are these leaders, whose salaries we pay, afraid of?
Blinken’s response to the demand to fire the offending Foreign Service officer might have been well-intentioned, but in no way did it enlighten anyone. In treating such reports “with the utmost seriousness,” does this mean that the department was investigating the complaint? If so, will they inform the complainants of the results? Was he fired? Disciplined? Were the charges unfounded?
The employees have every right to know. How can Jewish employees trust a colleague who calls them “vipers”? JTA reports that Berggren also bashes gays on his website.
It is especially curious that Berggren works for an agency whose mission is to liaison with all the diverse nations in the world. How can a prejudiced employee be entrusted to adequately represent the State Department to others, particularly representatives of foreign countries?
Both episodes affirm the Jewish community’s need to maintain a watch of Biden’s relationship with us. I know a few Jewish conservatives who were so turned off by President Trump that they refused to vote for either Biden or Trump last year. They saw both candidates as equal among evils.
Most Jews voted for Biden because they were confident that he would be a good president. Let us hope that we do not dismiss him as the lesser of the evils.
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Bruce Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist. He may be contacted via bruce.ticker@sdjewishworld.com