Joe Lieberman once told me that as someone who had legitimate aspirations to become president of the United States, he would never agree to become president of a synagogue. That was too difficult.
The senator, who died March 27 at 82, had a gentle wit, and the perfect story for any moment. He was as comfortable in the pews of a synagogue as he was in the halls of power.
Lieberman was the first publicly observant Jew to reach the highest level of American politics. For my generation of Jews, coming of age as he reached the apex of his influence in the Senate and then within a few hundred votes of the vice presidency, he was a hero. Seeing a man in a kippah nominated on a major party ticket, watching the world come to understand — and respect — a Sabbath-observing Jew who maintained the tenets of his tradition as he executed the responsibilities of his office, showed so many of us that it was possible to be fully engaged in public life without abandoning our spiritual commitments.
But, even more important, Lieberman demonstrated that a person could succeed in public life not despite his deep faith but by embracing it. It’s a model we need more in today’s divided times.
Lieberman was proudly Jewish, and he was proudly guided by his faith in his work. His faith was not fundamentalist. It was not censorious. It was humanistic and embracing. He believed that the values of Judaism could help to bring about a better world. His faith led him to bring people together, reach for connection and seek ways of working together constructively. He looked for solutions, for compromise. It was his faith that instilled in him the courage and independence to speak out and become one of the moral consciences of the nation.
Joe Lieberman’s faith taught him that we are all a part of something bigger — and his life’s work was in service not of his own power or influence but to help build a stronger and more equal United States of America.
As a Yale undergraduate in 1963, Lieberman traveled to the South to help register Black voters. Before he left, he wrote: “I am going because there is much work to be done. I am an American. And this is one nation, or it is nothing.”
“I am an American.”That was Lieberman’s overarching commitment. He was a patriot and a Jew, and it was because of his Judaism that he was driven to serve America.
I first met Lieberman when I was a young rabbi. Always the consummate politician, he shook my hand among a crowd of hundreds and told me I came from a “great Connecticut family.” I was raised in Queens — but, sure enough, my grandparents had fled Europe to Hartford. When I became president of Yeshiva University in 2017, I brought him onto our board of trustees. I got to watch up close how he worked, and I experienced firsthand how he elevated every room he walked into, every conversation he took part in, with his charm and dignity and insight and humor, all delivered with a light touch. He was a mentor to me.
Three months ago, we announced Yeshiva’s Senator Joseph Lieberman-Mitzner Center for Public Service and Advocacy. He was thrilled and moved when we first mentioned the idea to him. And he was insistent on ensuring that the center, which will prepare young Jews for a life in public service, stay true to his values. It will teach ethics, it will prioritize dialogue, it will promote moderation and compromise and it will instill the ethos of public life as a force for societal good, not for self-aggrandizement.
The Talmud teaches that when a righteous person passes away, another one is born so that the seeds of the future have already taken root. On the very same day he passed away, we selected our inaugural cohort of Senator Joseph Lieberman Scholars.
To solve America’s problems, we need leaders of all faiths who believe in conversation and compromise. Leaders who believe in working together. Leaders who want to find solutions, not create divisions. Leaders who understand their work is to benefit the larger whole. Leaders of unassailable integrity.
We need leaders like Joe Lieberman.
Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman is president of Yeshiva University in New York.