There are two things that can be gleaned from the following
story in the Forward. 1) Jack Lew is a walking Kiddush HaShem, and 2) The
President truly respects Judaism and its practitioners. Here is the Forward article in its entirety:
When Jack Lew was appointed chief of staff to President Obama
in January, many in the Jewish community wondered how he could observe Shabbat
in such a demanding position.
Luckily, Lew has the most powerful man in the world to keep
track of time as the sun starts to dip low in the sky on Friday afternoons.
“I saw the president on many occasions on Friday afternoons
look at his watch, and ask: ‘Isn’t it time for you to get going?’” Lew said,
“or, ‘Why are you still here?’ The president was not checking the clock
“because he doesn’t think I can keep time,” Lew said. Rather, the extra care on
this issue reflects the President’s wish “to remind me that it’s important to
him, not just to me, that I be able to make that balance.”
Lew, who is Orthodox, revealed the details about his keeping
Shabbat in an extraordinary interview with the Forward that touched on his need
to observe the Jewish holy day.
“And he’s respected that time and again,” the chief of staff
said of Obama.
The chief of staff noted it was Obama who brought up the
issue of Shabbat when first offering Lew the job.
“He raised it with me saying: ‘I know that things are going
to come up where there’s an emergency on Saturday or that you need to be here.
I know you well enough to know that this is not an issue. I want you to know
that I’m never going to ask you to work on Saturday if it’s not really
necessary. It’s important for me that you know that.’”
On his behalf, Lew provided the President with his own
assurances.
“I’ve made it clear,” Lew said, “that you don’t have to
wonder if there’s a crisis whether I’m available. If you need me, I don’t even
consider it a violation of my faith to be doing the things I need to do to make
sure people are not in harm’s way.”
In practice, this arrangement has worked out well. On
Fridays, Lew leaves the White House before Shabbat begins and he is off on
Saturdays. In the cases where his presence was needed on Shabbat, the chief of
staff usually walked to the White House and back.
Rabbis he consulted with assured Lew that when there is a
real necessity, Jewish tradition approves of working on the Sabbath. The number
of times Lew actually had to work in Saturday has been “limited,” he said.
Lew had dealt with the potential conflicts between observing
Shabbat and working in top level positions under President Bill Clinton, when
he served as the White House budget director. Clinton made sure not to have his
top budget adviser busy from sundown Friday to the end of Saturday, and Lew
made himself available when emergencies occurred.
“I have found that if you are true to your own beliefs,
people respect it,” Lew said. “I’ve found that President Obama considers it a
sign of strength and value that there is something in my life that reflects principles
that I adhere to.”
