Axelrod Kvells, Debra Winger Glitters at Jewish Community’s Inaugural Party
VICTORY LAP: Senior presidential aide David Axelrod exulted in exit poll results showing that 78% of Jews voted for Obama.
By Nathan Guttman January 21, 2009
Washington — The 2009 Jewish Community Inaugural Reception wasn’t a black-tie event. There was no dancing, and only a few traditional boldfaced names were spotted in the crowd. On the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration, Jewish communal professionals and politicians celebrated the historic transfer of power by talking politics.
VICTORY LAP: Senior presidential aide David Axelrod exulted in exit poll results showing that 78% of Jews voted for Obama.
For organizational activists and those commonly referred to as “Jewish leaders,” it was a great chance to show support for the new president and his team. For Jewish politicians, it was an opportunity to rub elbows with community figures and to brandish pro-Israel credentials. And for the rest of those in attendance, it was just another show of Jewish political power that brings members of Congress, political mavens and sampaign insiders to one Washington ballroom.
Held at the Capital Hilton, the reception was co-sponsored by nine Jewish groups, each putting up, according to a source in one of the organizations, $10,000 to have its name on the invitation. The list included six national groups: the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the National Jewish Democratic Council, United Jewish Communities, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the American Jewish Committee and the National Council on Soviet Jewry, as well as the Jewish community federations of New York, Washington and Chicago.
Barack Obama didn’t stop by, but he did send over David Axelrod, who is his senior adviser and one of the top Jewish figures in the new administration. “He is a mensch,” said AIPAC’s chairman Howard Friedman, when introducing Axelrod.
Facing hundreds of Jewish activists, Axelrod, too, drew on Yiddish vocabulary when describing his feelings to the crowd: “I came here to do a little kvelling,” he said. The senior adviser spoke of the concern many had during the campaign about the Jewish vote, and about his relief when he had seen that 78% of Jewish voters backed Obama. “You are all shareholders in this victory,” Axelrod said.
But at least one shareholder expressed his wish to set the stakes even higher. Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, who said he is convinced that Obama is a friend of the Jewish people, also looked further into the future. “Maybe my son or grandson will be in this room and maybe celebrate the first Jewish president,” Wiesel said.
For most, however, having Obama as president was enough.
Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg said Obama will be “equally as strong” as any other president on issues relating to Israel and the Jewish community. Listening in the crowd was Minnesota’s Democratic almost-senator, Al Franken, who is still waiting for his final okay before he joins the pack of Jewish lawmakers.
Although dozens of celebrities descended on Washington for the presidential inauguration, only a few made their way to the Jewish community’s reception. Still, sex therapy icon Ruth Westheimer, standing in the front row, and actress Debra Winger, speaking from the podium, gave the event the glitter necessary for any inaugural gala.
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