Looks like the GOP's trying to get some help from the Big Mentsch In Charge—today's opening prayer at the Republican National Convention will be delivered by a New York Jew! Rabbi Meir Y. Soloveichik, the director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University and an associate rabbi at the Orthodox Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side, will be giving the convention's invocation in Tampa, Fla. this afternoon following the National Anthem.
Soloveichik, who was one of several religious leaders to testify in Congress against Obama's plan requiring insurance companies to offer free coverage of women's contraceptives earlier this year, was originally supposed to deliver the prayer later on in the week, but schedule-juggling due to the impending threat of Hurricane Isaac pushed him to the convention's forefront. "I do not consider this prayer a partisan endorsement," Soloveichik, who is a registered Republican, told the Wall Street Journal. "This is a cherished ritual of American democratic life and whatever your political view is, it's a very important moment. I'm honored to be asked."
The rabbi comes from a long line of prominent Jewish religious leaders—his grandfather, Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, was a noted Talmud scholar, and uncle Joseph B. Soloveitchik was one of the leaders of American Modern Orthodox Judaism. But despite Soloveichik's standing in the Orthodox Jewish Community, his peers are hesitant to say his presence at the GOP speaks to the community's political stance. "Rabbi Meir Soloveichik does not represent the Orthodox Jewish population in the country," Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun's head rabbi, told the Wall Street Journal. "Rabbi Soloveichik is an American and has a right to represent himself at any convention that he wants to attend."
Soloveichik isn't the only religious leader out of good old godless NYC to bless the GOP this week. Cardinal Dolan, who is suing the Obama administration for the same birth control mandate Soloveichik testified against, will be delivering the convention's closing benediction on Thursday. And while you're waiting for the Republican rogations to begin, check out some of these these Yiddish curses for Republican Jews, which may or may not be Bubbe-approved.
