Trying to create a more tolerant world

Stefanie Frith

Democrat Joseph Lieberman’s ticket may not have won the White House,

but wife Hadassah Lieberman says they won something more important.

“We have been recognized for helping to break down the barrier for

tolerance of the Jewish religion,” she told an audience of more than 400

at Temple Bat Yahm on Sunday night in Newport Beach. “We have the

responsibility as Jewish Americans to remind people what happens when

tolerance is lost in society.”

Tolerance was the theme of Lieberman’s speech, as she explained what

it means to be the daughter of Holocaust survivors, an immigrant to the

United States, a firsthand witness to the last presidential race and the

wife of the first Jew on a national party ticket.

Lieberman said the campaign trail was quite an adventure. The day that

her husband was announced as the democratic vice presidential candidate,

her speech paved the way for the theme of their campaign and she said

that after that, nothing was ever the same.

“The night before I spoke, I said at a dinner with Al Gore that I had

never dreamt that I would be sitting there, the daughter of Holocaust

survivors, an immigrant, and the wife of the vice presidential

candidate,” Lieberman said, dressed in a navy blue suit with two strands

of pearls around her neck. “Gore told me to say the same thing the next

day when it was announced nationally. The last thing most people would do

is call attention to their differences. But Gore inspired me and as I

stood before that national audience, I knew that I represented so many of

us.”

After that speech, Lieberman said many people approached her

throughout the following months, thanking her for those words.

“Holocaust survivors would reach out to me and veterans would thank me

for remembering them,” said Lieberman, who has worked a lot on health

reform and women’s issues. “Their eyes were so grateful that I had

remembered their efforts. Tolerance and what it means to people -- that’s

what the campaign was about for me.”

Lieberman also said that her and her husband’s openness about their

Jewish background paved the way for many to examine the Jewish religion.

“Our Jewishness was big news,” said Lieberman, whose father was a

rabbi in Massachusetts. “We found ourselves educating the public and the

media about what it means to be Jewish. We found that many journalists

were surprised that we had not been met by anti-Semitism. And we found

people saying, ‘I’m Catholic, but I’m voting for you.’ But I think it

really opened up a lot of discussions about tolerance.”

Learning to tolerate the media was one thing the Liebermans had to get

used to quickly. The morning that the vice presidential candidates were

to be announced on Aug. 7, Lieberman said hordes of media were staked out

in front of their house in Connecticut.

“The media woke me up at 3 a.m. and I had to go to the window and tell

them [to shush] and close the window,” she said with a laugh. “They were

so noisy. Later in the morning, I woke up and found Joe staring at the

T.V. and he said, ‘Sweetheart.’ I said, ‘What?’ I hadn’t slept in weeks.

Then I heard on one of the morning shows that it was him and I said, ‘Oh

my God, it’s you, Joe!’ Then, even more media trucks came and the phones

began to ring off the hook. Joe went down the stairs to make coffee and

had to duck not to be seen through the windows.”

Katherine Domino of Costa Mesa, who attended Lieberman’s speech, said

she really admires Lieberman for dealing with the heavy media coverage

and campaign trail. She said she remembers Joseph Lieberman from when she

was the librarian at his hometown library in Connecticut.

“It was good to see her, I got to shake her hand,” Domino said

excitedly. “I grabbed her just for a second. But she was great. I told

her to tell her husband that his old librarian says hello. As far as I am

concerned, they are the ones that should be in the White House.”

The Liebermans may not be in the White House, but Lieberman said the

campaign trail did teach her family strength, which became important in

the long days of waiting to see who had won the presidency.

“We may not have won, but now we have been thrown back into our

regular lives,” she said. “Those who run for national office give up

their regular lives. But I think I was ready to get back to a normal

life. Part of me just wanted to drive my own car again and do my own

grocery shopping.”