Obama’s Chief of Staff Replaced by Orthodox Jew

Politico, NBC

Jack Lew

Bill Daley is stepping down from his job as White House chief of staff and will be replaced by budget director Jacob Lew, an Orthodox Jew.

Daley’s tenure has been plagued by complaints about his management style and his rocky relations with Congress. He already had ceded some responsibility in recent months, but his decision to leave his post surprised White House officials.

The job went to Lew because of his strong connections on Capitol Hill and his wide variety of experiences in government and the private sector, according to a second senior administration official. The transition will take place at the end of the month.

Like Daley, Lew previously served in the Clinton administration.

Jack Lew is also a longtime member of the Orthodox Union community – having been an active member of Congregation Beth Shalom of Potomac and the Riverdale Jewish Center.

From NBC’s John Yang – July 10, 2010:

As an Orthodox Jew, Jack Lew, President Obama’s choice to Director of the Office of Management and Budget, observes the religious restrictions on the Jewish Sabbath, which runs from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. He leaves the office Friday afternoons in time to get home before sundown, and does not use electric or electronic devices, including the telephone.

Once, while working in President Clinton’s director, Lew’s home phone rang one Saturday. He didn’t answer and a familiar voice could be heard from the answering machine, urging him to pick up the phone. Mr. Clinton said he understood the sanctity of the Sabbath, but that it was important that he talk to Lew. He even said, it was later reported, that “God would understand.”

Lew later consulted with his rabbi, who said that taking an important phone call from the President of the United States would be permissible on the Sabbath under the Talmudic teaching that work on the Sabbath is allowed in order to save a life.

19 Comments

  • go Mitt, Newt, ABO!

    So now we all must vote for O-bama because he hired “one of us” for a top slot? LOL!

  • Shlomo

    “…under the Talmudic teaching that work on the Sabbath is allowed in order to save a life”

    Who’s life might he be saving?

    Does he really think that if the president gets his phone call rejected for the first time he might hang himself?

    Hmm…

  • I would vote for Obama

    …and I am sure we would all vote for Obama if he would have appointed for Chief of Staff Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin.

  • maybe the simple minded like you should

    #3 maybe the simple minded like you should not post…. I did not vote for Obama or would in the future, but for you to speak of Jacob Lew like that ,you probably never of him 3hrs ago and know nothing about him. very simple minded at best.

  • Milhouse

    #4, you are right, of course. There is no possibility that anything Clinton might have wanted him for was pikuach nefesh. However there is another heter for doing some things that would normally be ossur on Shabbos: tzorchei tzibbur. Taking such a call would almost certainly qualify for this heter, so the question becomes what issur exactly is it to answer the phone. It seems to me that in such a situation he may certainly ask a goy to pick up the phone; and maybe one may also pick it up oneself with a shinnui, such as using ones elbow to hit “speaker”, or picking up the receiver with ones mouth. To pick it up normally may also be muttar; I’m not sure exactly which issurim are involved, in order to answer that question. If it was nogeia lemayseh, I’d ask Rav Halperin.

  • vote NO for Obama

    So let Lew convince Obama to pardon Rubashkin and Pollard now. Get it over with with ASAP.
    But don’t vote for Obama though. 6 years is more than enough!
    (duh – you know how long it takes to get someone out of public housing?!?!)

  • Moishe Sachs

    He can’t be worse than Rahm “Dead Fish” Imanuel was. Any Orthodox Jew who would work in the White House for a man who is literally purposely destroying our country, demonizing those trying to stop him, and doing as much as he can to hurt Israel, is at least a moron. I think that it’s evil to do so. But that’s my opinion.

  • If hearing aid allowed, why not phone?

    As far as heterim to use the phone,
    I once heard a Yid saying that hearing aid
    is the same techbnology as a microphone.
    So, if a hearing aid is allowed on Shabbos,
    why not the microphone? or the telephone?

  • Fundraising Dinner with Carter.

    To 10. When Carter – no better than Obama, in my opinion –
    was president, prominent Lubavitcher shluchim hosted him for a big fundraising dinner. So, what’s the big deal about working for Obama. For that matter, any Yid working a government job would, in your opinion, be a moron.

  • Milhouse

    #12, there’s a big difference between using a rosho to raise money for Torah, and working to help him implement his wicked agenda.

  • Yaakov613

    This Jacob Lew guy should be ashamed of himself. Also-how isa guy who doesn’t wear a yalmulke classified as Orthodox?

  • messianic times

    He is now like Yosef the viceroy of Pharoh. We are certainly living in Moshiach’s times!

  • ZOL ER GEYI-N GLEICH IN DRER-D AREIN....

    Tzuzamehn mit dem shvartzer rosha un sonai yisroel!

    Krank iz er to wear a yarmulkah?! What kind of BS to answer a phone on shabbos?! What pikuach nefesh? Who’s life is in “danger”?! You are not allowed to be mechalel shabbos for a goy!?