Rabbi Bruce Dollin is in trouble.
For those of you not as familiar as I am with American Jewish politics – and how can I put this gently? – when a rabbi admits he’s a Republican to congregants, he might as well have just admitted to being down with Jesus.
Rabbi Dollin is a senior rabbi at the conservative – as in the denomination – Hebrew Educational Alliance Synagogue in Denver. A few weeks ago Dollin penned an op-ed piece titled “Confessions Of A Neocon Rabbi” in a Jewish newspaper: “Thirty years of being a registered Democrat came to an end this week,” Dollin wrote, “and I thought it prudent to pause a moment to reflect.”
While Rabbi Dollin certainly doesn’t share all the Republican Party’s positions, he believes the aggressive role the president has taken in promoting democracy and fighting terrorism is vital.
Politics can be divisive, sure. Fortunately, we work our disagreements out with yard signs – not bullets. But how would his overwhelming liberal congregants react to the new Republican rabbi?
“Most of the people from the congregation who read things over the Internet saw it, and most people were favorably disposed to the essay,” he explains. “A couple of people, however, got very angry. I think they were angry because people are close to their rabbis, and I think they would like to think their beliefs line up with their rabbis’.”
Would you be upset if your clergyman’s political views were diametrically opposed to yours? Does it matter? Can religion and politics ever be separated?
Sometimes it’s hard to keep up. The Denver Catholic Church, for instance, supports some conservative issues (opposing abortion and gay marriage) and other liberal ones (immigration and ending the death penalty).
“Many religious leaders have often done so throughout history,” Dollin says of voicing his personal politics. “Particularly throughout the civil rights period. Though I do think that clergymen using their pulpit to pound away on politics is wrong. Particularly, because, as we know, it doesn’t give the congregation the time to respond.”
One of the major fears in Denver’s Jewish community, as elsewhere, is the intimate relationship Republicans have with evangelicals. “Conversion” is an oft-mentioned bogeyman, as if Jews have collectively lost their free will to resist.
To this point, Dollin relates a conversation he had with the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals in Colorado Springs, who once told him that in the end of days, Jesus may come walking down a Jerusalem street, “and you Jews will have to make some theological adjustments.”
“Well, that’s no problem for me,” Dollin responded. “When Jesus comes again, Ted and I will have a long talk about theology. In the meantime, the evangelicals are pro-Israel … and stand for the same religious moral values that we Jews do.” Not to mention, Dollin says, “Evangelicals are our friends, and we shouldn’t take our friends for granted.”
The rabbi points out that when Colorado College invited terrorist-apologist Hanan Ashrawi as the keynote speaker for the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, “the only voices crying out against the college’s insensitivity” were his rabbinical colleagues and evangelical ministers.
“Our local community relations council, Anti-Defamation League, Jewish federation and liberal Protestant ministers didn’t show up at our rally,” Dollin says. “The evangelicals were there in force.”
The rabbi is also concerned about a community that speaks with one voice. As with any other group of people, there is an array of political opinions within the Jewish community. Groups such as the Anti-Defamation League or the Jewish Reform Party certainly don’t speak for me. Yet, as an American Jew, I’m not sure I agree with the rabbi. I think the mix of politics and religion poses many problems.
As a nonconformist, Dollin is standing by the courage of his convictions, and that can’t be easy. Hopefully, his newfound political stand will spark conversation – not anger.
David Harsanyi’s column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
