10/29/2004) Rabbis Steering Clear Of Endorsements Pushing candidates from the pulpit not their role, many say; some observers asking if tax-exempt restriction is censorship. Jonathan Mark - Associate Editor

Rabbi Joachim Prinz, one of the most defiant German rabbis in the 1930s, often spoke against Hitler from his Berlin pulpit when Hitler was still on German ballots, one politician among many. Exiled from Germany, Rabbi Prinz, becoming one of the deans of the American rabbinate, made his endorsements clear from his Newark pulpit, recalled Rabbi Michael Lerner, a congregant in the postwar years. Rabbi Prinz's support for Franklin Roosevelt was depicted most recently in the Philip Roth novel "The Plot Against America," in which rabbis on both political sides play pivotal roles.

Today, Rabbi Lerner, the highly political Jewish Renewal leader, along with just about every other American rabbi, will scrupulously avoid endorsing any candidate from the pulpit. One reason perhaps is that according to the Internal Revenue Service, a synagogue that offers an endorsement would find its tax-exempt status threatened. But aside from that, rabbis seem to have come to a consensus that using their influence to sway a congregation's vote is something they ought not to be doing.
Rabbi Haskel Lookstein of Kehilath Jeshurun told The Jewish Week, "I happen to feel extremely passionately about this election. Israel is at great risk and the world is at great risk. But I don't think rabbis have any better insight or information than other people on political matters.

"There are moral issues involved in this election," not the least of which is Israel's right to defend itself, "but reasonable people can disagree about which candidate will deal with these moral issues in a better way," he said. Congregants are sometimes interested in what he is thinking politically, Rabbi Lookstein said, and he will offer his thoughts — but not from the pulpit. "If I was sitting in the congregation and the rabbi was telling me how to vote, I'd resent it," he said. "In our shul, people would be upset if I endorsed a candidate, even if they agreed with my endorsement; it's not the role of a rabbi. A shul shouldn't be Democratic or Republican." Rabbi Lookstein, who like his late father, Rabbi Joseph Lookstein, teaches homiletics at Yeshiva University, said, "My father advised us against taking political stands, and I advise that to my students, as well."

Rabbi Gordon Tucker of Temple Israel Center in White Plains said that at the Jewish Theological Seminary, political endorsements "were generally presented not as a moral no-no but as a no-win situation." Congregants may ask him for his voting inclination, but "very rarely," Rabbi Tucker said. "Most of them know, more or less, where my sympathies lie, but to borrow a term from another tradition, it's another thing to be speaking ex cathedra." Even when there are economic or political philosophies that he feels are more consonant with Torah principles, "the differences with those who disagree is not so stark for me to say that another point of view is indefensible," Rabbi Tucker said. "What I can do is teach and interpret Jewish texts and say it's probably good to think about these texts in light of the current debate, but that's about as far as I think it ought to go," he said.

Rabbi Lerner, spiritual leader of Beit Tikkun in San Francisco, as well as editor of the political journal Tikkun, which doesn't make endorsements, said in a phone interview, "I would never endorse anyone, or talk about any candidate, when I'm in shul." Even though he has been endorsing Sen. John Kerry outside of shul, Rabbi Lerner explained that at Beit Tikkun, "We teach Torah values, but we're only too aware of how people in politics are often a poor embodiment of those values. If there was a political party that really fully articulated a spiritual vision, I might speak of it in the synagogue.

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