President invokes Reform prayer
DANIEL KURTZMAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - Facing the gravest test of his presidency and personal life, President Clinton has turned to the Yom Kippur liturgy for what he hopes will be the right words of atonement. With 106 clergy members gathered at the White House last Friday, Sept. 11, for a national prayer breakfast, Clinton opened up "Gates of Repentance," the Reform movement's High Holidays prayer book, and read a passage about the challenges of penitence.
Clinton invoked the Jewish concept of atonement as part of an unprecedented baring of his soul and his most extensive confession to date regarding the Monica Lewinsky scandal. His voice thick with emotion, Clinton said he had sinned and focused his remarks on what one rabbi described as the Jewish steps for repentance - acknowledging wrongdoing, apologizing to those you have wronged and taking steps to make sure you do not repeat the transgression.
"That was an incredible tie-in," said Rabbi Paul Menitoff, executive vice president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Reform movement's rabbinic body, who sat at a table with Clinton in the ornate East Room of the White House. The prayer breakfast took place just hours before the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to make public the report of independent counsel Kenneth Starr, which provides vivid details of Clinton's affair with Lewinsky, a former White House intern, and alleged impeachable offenses.
Clinton, a Southern Baptist, is known to be deeply religious and has frequently turned to Scripture throughout his political career.
"The power of the Jewish concept of repentance and the liturgical expressions of Yom Kippur do have a universal resonance," said Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Reform movement's Religious Action Center. "It was very touching at a moment of crisis to hear the president of the United States turn to the Jewish prayer book for inspiration."
Clinton's speech to the broad cross-section of religious leaders from around the country, including about 15 rabbis, came amid signs that his support among clergy members is beginning to erode. Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary and a leading figure within the Conservative movement, last week urged Clinton to resign. Other prominent religious leaders have also called for Clinton's resignation.
In an interview with The New York Times, Schorsch said Clinton's moral authority has been "destroyed" as a result of the scandal. He was unavailable for further comment.
Schorsch, regarded throughout the Jewish community and by senior Jewish Democrats as a great moral voice, traveled with Clinton to Israel for the Israeli-Jordanian peace signing in 1994 and for Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's funeral in 1995. His call for Clinton's resignation, which came before the prayer breakfast, caught many off guard and did not appear to reflect a widely held sentiment among other rabbinical leaders as Starr's report made its way into public view and lawmakers tried to determine how to proceed.
Rabbi Menachem Genack of the Orthodox Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Englewood, N.J., said he thought Schorsch would have been "wise to wait for that judgment." Genack, a longtime Democratic supporter who attended the breakfast as a representative of the Orthodox Union, said he was airing his personal views.
In watching Clinton speak at the prayer breakfast, Genack said he saw a recognition that repentance is a process. "He's beginning to internalize some of those values and transforming anger into contrition," he said.
Indeed, many of the religious leaders gathered at the White House said they had been won over by Clinton's apology. Some of the rabbis in attendance said they intended to construct Yom Kippur sermons with the president's story as a modern parable. But in the political realm, it remained unclear what impact Clinton's confession would have on rapidly unfolding events. Shortly after he spoke, his words became lost amid the lurid details of the Starr report.
|