Geraldo Rivera, Member of Knesset?
Though it went unreported when it happened a few years ago, veteran news personality Geraldo Rivera was only a hairsbreadth away from moving to Israel and pursuing a political career there. According to a recent interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, the mustachioed muckraker was all set to go; he even started looking for an apartment.
Danger couldn’t deter him — “I would die for Israel,” he said — but though willing to stare down death, he was unable to withstand the objections of his then-fiancée and now-wife, Emily Levy, and his future father-in-law.
Though it may be news to some, Geraldo, despite the Hispanic moniker, is a true-blue Jew, Brooklyn-bred by a Jewish mother, Lilly Friedman, and a Catholic, Puerto Rican father, Cruz Rivera. He told the Inquirer that he was raised “mostly Jewish” and had a bar mitzvah.
Rivera has never shrunk from a big story, and Israeli politics would have been no different. “I’d be punching out everybody every day,” he said of his imagined career in the Knesset. Even in his recent interview, Rivera was not afraid of being blunt, remarking that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank “is bull,” and that it “dehumanizes” Palestinians. He is, however, in favor of the separation barrier, explaining, “It might be even better. Let the people cool off for a couple of decades.”
Israel may, alas, have lost its opportunity for Rivera’s diplomatic talents. Though no man is an island, some men can buy one, and Rivera recently purchased his own little promised land of 25 acres off the southern coast of Puerto Rico. And so, someday, when the conflict in the Middle East rages fierce, perhaps some will let their gaze drift southward, and wonder at what might have been.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
