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October 27, 2000/28 Tammuz 5760, Vol. 53, No.5
Political junkie takes to the campaign trail
VICKI CABOT
Contributing Editor
Rusty Silverstein hops aboard the Gore-Lieberman Mississippi riverboat in Nashville.
Photo courtesy of Rustin Silverstein |
As a college freshman in 1996, Rustin (Rusty) Silverstein was skeptical that a Jew could ever be elected to the highest national office.
Just five years later, he is working long days and nights to make it happen.
"I first met the senator (Joseph Lieberman) when he spoke at Harvard Hillel," recalls Silverstein.
He says he asked the senator if he thought there were obstacles to Jews seeking the highest political office. Lieberman replied "no."
In August, Lieberman accepted Vice President Al Gore's invitation to take the No. 2 spot as presidential candidate Gore's running mate on the national Democratic ticket.
"He was right, I was wrong," says Silverstein with a laugh, during a Valley campaign stop. As a member of the Gore-Lieberman advance team, Silverstein helped facilitate the recent whirlwind visit here of Lieberman's wife, Hadassah. The advance team chooses venues, identifies audiences and makes logistical arrangements.
He says that there "was some nervousness about how (Lieberman's candidacy) would play," after Gore decided to name the Connecticut senator, but that Lieberman's religious faith has not been an issue. Instead, it has been an asset.
Silverstein recalls the positive reaction in Nashville when Lieberman's candidacy was announced and the heartwarming public response to the senator's story of his humble roots and his wife's recounting of her family's escape from the Holocaust.
"People may have trouble pronouncing 'Hadassah,' but they are moved by her personal story," he says.
Silverstein says he gets goose bumps remembering the non-Jewish campaign volunteer in Nashville who, as Hadassah Lieberman spoke, tearfully whispered to him that her grandfather had been present at Dachau, a concentration camp, when it was liberated. "She told me that she was 'so moved about what this says about our country.' "
Silverstein, who graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1999 with a degree in government, says he is fascinated with the political process and the potential it holds for real change.
"My interest in politics goes back a long time," says the former political analyst for the Harvard Crimson, recalling his bar mitzvah celebration, themed in red, white and blue and political hoopla.
He likens its early appeal to that of sports. "It's the competition. It's fun keeping track of who's in and who's out."
As he grew beyond his days as student senate president at Phoenix Country Day School and broadened his knowledge and real-life experience, he felt a growing appreciation for the political process.
"As I've gotten older I've gained an understanding of what the issues are and the implications of political decisions on people's lives," he says.
His college classes also provided a philosophical context.
"The questions debated today are the same questions debated for thousands of years," he observes.
His senior thesis focused on the New Hampshire primaries and analyzed "how such a small state can play such a huge role."
Frontline experience has reinforced his belief in the system and the imperative for participation. He served as an intern in the Clinton-Gore 1996 campaign, working at national headquarters and at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He also spent a summer interning with the City of Phoenix Mayor's office.
Being a Gore-Lieberman campaign insider has enhanced his view of the process. Traveling around the country, Silverstein says, he has gained a sense of America's diversity and an appreciation of the strength of grass roots involvement.
"Voter participation may be down," he says, "but in each community we go into we run into people who volunteer their time and energy because they believe in the candidate and the issues."
After college, Silverstein spent a year studying in Israel as a recipient of a Dorot Fellowship. He took classes at Hebrew University and the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and worked as an intern at the Jerusalem Post and English tutor for Israeli high school students.
He had previously toured Israel as a youngster with parents Wylie and Bill Silverstein and siblings Grant and Brooke. That vacation, he says, provided just a quick look at the Jewish state. As an adult there for a year, he gained real insight.
"I could get a big-picture sense of the attitudes there, the daily stresses," he says."
And, adds Silverstein, a self-described political junkie, "It was a great place to be for someone interested in local politics. ... Something was always happening; every day the government was falling, there was a new scandal, a new development in the peace process."
He was invigorated.
"Everybody has an opinion," he says, recounting the time a taxi driver insisted that he had no interest in politics, then spent the entire cab ride bad-mouthing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
Silverstein is disturbed by the current violence in Israel and professes a frustration, shared by many, with press coverage. "It's very hard to get a sense of exactly what is happening," he says.
Terming the current situation "heartbreaking," Silverstein, who has spent time with Israeli Arabs in Ramallah, says, "It's a real shame that it has come to this."
He's confident that the election of Gore and Lieberman bodes well for supporters of Israel.
"You will not find two more pro-Israel politicians," he says.
With the election less than two weeks away, where does Silverstein see himself after Nov. 7?
"If the vice president becomes president, I may be interested in going to Washington and getting involved there," he says.
Or he may strike out in a new direction. He says his months in the eye of the political storm have been both exciting and emotionally draining.
"You're constantly trying to make a sale and not sure if you can," he says.
Still, there is the intense satisfaction that comes from knowing that you are doing something meaningful.
"You're part of something that can make a difference in people's lives," he says.
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