By Mark D. Zimmerman
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 60 years ago this week in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the son of Joseph Kennedy, Sr., a wealthy businessman and philanthropist. Joseph Kennedy was a known antisemite who, while he was serving as the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1938, told the German ambassador that President Roosevelt was the victim of “Jewish influence” who was misinformed as to the “philosophy, ambitions and ideals of Hitler’s regime.” John F. Kennedy made many efforts to distance himself from his father’s views, both prior to and while serving as President. Which of the following is an example of John F. Kennedy’s positive connection to the Jewish community?
A. President Kennedy instructed one of his advisors, Lewis Weinstein, to organize a conference on the issue of Soviet Jews, who were being oppressed under the Soviet regime. Sadly, the conference never happened as Weinstein was only asked to do this days before Kennedy’s assassination.
B. It is well known that Robert Frost was one of the speakers at President Kennedy’s inauguration ceremony, the first time a poet participated in a presidential inauguration. It is less known that it was also the first inauguration in which a rabbi addressed the assembled, as President-elect Kennedy asked Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel to offer a benediction at the inauguration on January 20, 1961.
C. In 1947, John F. Kennedy won his first election, as a Congressman from Massachusetts’s 11th Congressional district. One of his first official acts was to co-sponsor a resolution supporting the United Nations partition plan for Palestine. At the time, Kennedy stated that “this is not a perfect plan, but it is the best plan to ensure the establishment of a Jewish state for survivors of the Nazi destruction.”
D. In August 1962, John F. Kennedy became the first American President to sell a major weapons system to Israel. The United States sold Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Israel as part of a broader strategy of expanding the U.S. bilateral relationship with Israel, an ally of growing importance in the Middle East.
E. When Kennedy was running for president he campaigned in the Chassidic communities of Brooklyn. He appeared at a rally sponsored by followers of Rebbe Nachman, where at one stop he donned a yarmulke and uttered his famous line (later to be stated again in a slightly revised way), “Ich bin ein Breslover.”
Mark Zimmerman is the author of a series of Jewish trivia books, under the title RASHI, RAMBAM and RAMALAMADINGDONG: A Quizbook of Jewish Trivia Facts & Fun.