The big news today of course is that Jack Abramoff has signed a deal to cooperate with the government’s prosecution of his Congressional partners in greed. But I’d like to cover an aspect of Abramoff that few in the media seem interested in: Jack’s Orthodox Jewish youth and his early campus Young Republican fanaticism. There are plenty of reasons to hate what Jack Abramoff did to himself and our political system. But what also interests me is what drove him to become the adult he did.
Barry Yeoman writes a terrific snapshot of Abramoff’s youth in the Mother Jones September/October issue. What’s interesting about this article is that Yeoman’s appears to have interviewed Abramoff directly. The stories are too personal to have come from any other source. Yet he does not say this within the article and provides no source:
IN THE HEAT OF A LOS ANGELES summer afternoon, the 13-year-old set off from home and began walking the five miles to synagogue. He was hungry and thirsty. It was the Jewish holy day of Tisha B’Av, when observers are not allowed to consume food or water for 24 hours. Grasping for his own interpretation of the law, the boy had convinced himself that he wasn’t supposed to ride in a car or even wear shoes.
He walked along the fence of the Los Angeles Country Club, an institution that historically excluded Jews. The pavement was hot and full of small stones, and his stocking feet began to blister. But when a member of the synagogue offered him a ride, he refused. To young Jack Abramoff, the religion of his ancestors was perilously close to fading away in his generation. He wasn’t going to fail it.
What is interesting about this story if true is that Abramoff here distorts Judaism in order to glorify the maximalism of his own standard of observance. Only on Shabbat and major holidays can you not drive a car. On Tisha B’Av you may drive one. On Tisha B’Av you may not wear leather. But you certainly may wear sneakers (not made with leather). He somehow feels that on this fast day if he punishes himself more than other Jews that he will earn extra points. Here we see the “driven to excess” aspect of his youthful personality coming to the fore. One thing Abramoff seems to have missed is that Judaism frowns on those who take its halachic standards to excess. You merely have to be a good Jew. You don’t have to be the best Jew. In fact, there is no best Jew.
Abramoff came of age in Beverly Hills, the son of an executive who worked for Arnold Palmer, the famously conservative golfer. The language of his childhood home was about patriotism and honoring elders, and he often heard stories about the plight of Soviet Jews. But his parents were not particularly observant. As he tells it, his religious epiphany came at 12 years old when, after watching Fiddler on the Roof, he yearned for the Orthodoxy of his great-grandparents’ generation. “It was to me very strange that they’re Jews and we’re Jews, and we have totally different lives and belief systems,” he says. “I felt a twinge of sadness that that culture had died out in our family.” And with that, he decided, “I’ll be the person to resurrect it.”
Abramoff bought books on Jewish law and taught himself Hebrew. Every Saturday, he’d wake before his siblings and walk to temple. His parents were surprised, but, he says, “I believed in God. I believed he did decide the Jewish people would do certain things. I wanted to keep up my end of the contract.”
It wasn’t until he entered Brandeis University that Abramoff found a like-minded community. He befriended rabbis and ate his meals at a kosher kitchen. He debated politics in the dorms, arguing that the Bible ordained a conservative ideology. And he met, for the first time, members of left-wing groups like the Spartacus Youth League, which held rallies attacking U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan and calling for nuclear disarmament. “I was outraged that seemingly normal American students could so hate the country I love,” he says. Abramoff organized counter demonstrations, where students sang “God Bless America.”
Along those same lines, Bruce Ehrlich was also a member of the Brandeis class of 1981. He was involved in the movement against U.S. intervention in El Salvador. Bruce wrote this interesting reminiscence in a comment at this blog:
I also graduated from Brandeis, class of 1981. It was an interesting time politically in the US as well as at Brandeis. Reagan had just been elected. Coincidentally (or not) that same year Brandeis hired a visiting professor of politics who I studied with, who had come directly from the American Enterprise Institute — which might today seem like a moderate Republican think tank but back then was a vanguard of the right
My most vivid memory involving Jack Abramoff and the newly-formed Brandeis Young Republicans occurred during a rally we held to oppose US intervention in El Salvador. Suddenly we were surround on all sides by his band of Young Repubs, who were waving American flags and singing God Bless America in an attempt to drown out our speakers. I kid you not. Right-wing flag wavers had finally arrived at Brandeis. It was certainly the beginning of a new era in politics.
Bruce also infers a possible Brandeis connection between Jack Abramoff and the family of Bob Ney, one of the Congress members most deeply implicated in the current scandal:
Representative Bob Ney the brother of Vic Ney, also class of ‘81. I’ve always assumed there was a connections there since I roughly place Vic and Jack in the same social circles at Brandeis.
Yikes. All I have to say is, the New Testament has a word for people like Jack Abramoff…”Pharisee.” And in the New Testament, that’s hardly a compliment.
As one of Bob Ney’s constituents, I find the tid-bit about Abramoff and Ney’s brother fascinating. I have no delusions that Ney’s affable “Mayor of the Hill” facade is anything other than just that, but couldn’t help but wonder how a congressman from Ohio River coal country linked up with the movers and shakers of K Street, international arms dealers and all the rest.
Found my way here via Bagnewsnotes.
Of all the mysteries regarding who knows who and how and why about this case, the central enigma has got to be, who the hell is Jack Abramoff? He probably is to himself. I hope that when he gets to prison and has some time to reflect he opens up and really talks about his life – because I think there is a story about the relationship of the “emptiness” of the american suburban sitcom culture (of which Beverly Hills is the epicenter) and the cynical corruption in Washington (both are extremely mean-spirited). No real beauty in one place and no respect for life in the other. Or is it the other way around. Oh well. If the story about the lost little 12 year old boy is at all true (and not some apocryphal hollywood bs he told about himself – well, on 2nd thought, maybe the point that he told it is the point), then hopefully this story can reveal something about (ahem) “values” which are taken for granted as a priori truths, and seem, somehow, to crystalize into an enantiodromia between rampant materialism and religious extremism a la Jack. My theory is that the reason so many poor struggling people keep voting people like DeLay and Bush and Reagan and so on into office is that there is a part of them who wants to somehow get “enough” to play outside the rules that they do. I am thinking about that great line in Syriana about how everyone, even Milton Freidman (who won a Nobel, for crying out loud!), knows that corruption is the engine that makes everything run. All the Nascar Dad wants is a shot at that – he doesn’t want to wake up one day and find out that he has won the lottery and he is expected to play by the rules.
Anyhow, I hope a thoughtful person gets their hands on this story but I am sure that is unlikely, given Jack’s sleazy track-record.
Very interesting blog – anyone who likes the Roaches is allright!
what the heck are we all talking about and screw the rharisee junk thats just anti-semitism
JoeBlo: What’ve you been blowin’ lately? The Pharisees WERE Jews so use of the term cannot be anti-Semitic. Keith was merely saying that in his religious tradition they call a money-grubbing, unprincipled person a Pharisee. I see nothing wrong with that. I think you got your hackles up unnecessarily.
I can see why Joe thought it was anti-Semitic since they were the ones who plotted against Jesus, but I wasn’t referring to that aspect. Actually, the key word that came to mind, especially after reading that part about him walking in stocking feet in the midst of summer, was “hypocrisy,” adhering strictly to the letter of the law but completely violating its spirit. In six verses in Matthew 23 Jesus uses “Pharisees” and “hypocrites” in the same sentence. So, what I’m saying, in so many words, is that Jack Abramoff is a hypocrite.
(And yes, in my mind, there are Christian Pharisees as well. They’re called the Religious Right.)
Below is an excerpt from an email exchange between myself and Jay Rovins. It clarifies the comments on your website about the Spartacists role at the Brandeis ralley and about Vic Ney. It seems that Vic is not related to the congressman.
—– Original Message —–
From: Jay Rovins
To: ‘Bruce Ehrlich’
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2005 12:07 PM
Subject: Brandeis and Abramoff
Bruce,
Vic Ney and I see each other frequently. He is on the reunion committee. If Vic is related to Congressman Ney, it is a very distant relationship. The relationship probably ranks low in terms of Jewish geography. Vic has no brother, just an older sister. Vic did not travel in the same social circles as Jack unless you equate that they were both friends of mine at Brandeis.
I recall the event on campus that you mentioned. If it is the event I’m thinking of, Jack’s group of “neo-cons”, including a weightlifter/student commonly referred to as “Flex”, were crashing an outdoor protest at Usdan held by the Sparticists? I’m not sure if I spelled this correctly. Bullhorns were used to drown out the Sparticist’s “liberal” cries for withdrawal of the Reagan administration’s support for the Contras. After just having gotten my coffee and congo bar downstairs at the Boulevard, I found myself walking right through the middle of this verbal snowball fight. There was my old buddy Jack, spewing stuff as quickly as Sean Hannity on Fox News Channel, not discussing the issues, but talking over them, more loudly than his opponents, as if this is the way to win an argument.
Jay
My response:
Jay:
You’re right that the Spartacist Youth League (the SYL) was present at that rally. But it wasn’t their event. It was organized by CISPES, the Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador. Joining us at the rally was part of their united front strategy (against capitalism and imperialism), but we were really just opposed to the US intervention. We couldn’t exclude them or denounce them and I’m sure they had a speaker or two there. Its too bad we all got lumped together in some people’s minds … The Brandeis Republicans had their first major show of force and Jack went on to bigger and not-so-better things.
Bruce
So Vic’s not related to Rep. Robert Ney. And for the record I’m not related to Rep. Robert Ehrlich. Its just a coincidence (or two).
Mr. Silverstein,
Thank you for your comment. I’ve given it a lot of thought and I may have indeed been too glib with the use of the phrase “Jewish conspiracy.” I was making a head-shaking comment on the fact that the media (and bloggers) have eagerly jumped all over the Jewish angle of this sordid story. Since I’m a Jew (which I reveal in earlier posts) I assumed readers would understand my tongue-in-cheek use of the phrase.
Perhaps I should have taken more time to explain what I meant but my message in a nutshell was this: criminality is criminality, Jewish or not.
I appreciate you taking the time to write me.
Best,
Lindsay
The Kollege Daily
I should note that Lindsay at Kollege Daily wrote a short post about Jack Abramoff in which she linked to this post and made a jesting reference to his case being a “Jewish conspiracy.” I thought Lindsay was joking, but frankly wasn’t sure. At the least, I felt more explanation was necessary to readers in order for them to understand what was meant. It’s all too easy for such code words to be misunderstood by people.
Anyway, Lindsay we’re fully in agreement as to Abramoff and his criminality. But I think there IS an important Jewish angle to the story. That is, anyone can use religion to attempt to either justify their crimes or else to flatter themselves that they are being a good person in the terms of their own religion–and neither is right.
Thanks Lindsay for being so good-natured about my comment.