Rabbi David Saperstein offers a defense of the Obama conference call with 1,000 rabbis in “A Memorable Conference Call”:
Some critics have expressed concern that the President's presence on a call for clergy is inherently partisan, thereby politicizing the High Holy Days. Yet none of the speakers addressed the partisan divide or politics. All, including the President, addressed the underlying moral issues from a variety of perspectives. But some, I suspect are critical of any discussion on such issues as being "political," defining anything political as being outside the religious concerns of the Jewish community and/or the concerns Jews have on the High Holy Days. At the root of many of these criticisms is the question of whether we, as Jews, should engage in social justice advocacy work in the first place.
No one criticized the President’s presence on a call for clergy as inherently partisan; nor was anyone critical of rabbis addressing the “underlying moral issues” of any matter; nor does anyone define as “political” anything outside the “religious concerns of the Jewish community.”
What was criticized, at least in my case, was inviting rabbis to hear the president enlist their help to sermonize in support of his legislation – to involve them in speaking from the pulpit in favor of one side in a partisan political dispute, which was the obvious purpose of the call.
It’s easy to support “doing God’s work in making a better, more just, more compassionate world for all,” a little harder to determine whether Obama’s legislation would help or hurt the American health care system. As one blogger has written in response to the Saperstein article:
"Doing God's work in making a better, more just, more compassionate world for all – including the poor, the weak, the sick, the children, the elderly, the widow and the orphan – has been a profoundly religious obligation for the Jewish people for 3,000 years." I agree, and that's why people should be upset about Obama putting a cap on the amount that one can get a tax deduction for charitable donations.
I doubt it was worth the president’s time to remind rabbis about the moral necessity to help the poor, the weak, the sick or others, and I suspect that not many of the 1,000 rabbis needed such a reminder. The call was about something else.
If not, why was it private, and why was Saperstein upset that some rabbis tweeted about it? As the above blogger notes in response to another of Saperstein’s points:
[T]he President noted that Jewish tradition teaches we are God's partners in preserving life and delaying death. "Gee I wish that's what the President said – "Partners in preserving life and delaying death." But it's just not. Now might one wish there was a better public recording of what was said on that call?