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22.04.03, 04:48
Apr. 22, 2003
Jewish faith shapes Hawaii governor
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONOLULU
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She makes time for her lieutenant and her scheduler, her cabinet and her
closest advisers. But every Monday morning, Gov. Linda Lingle sits down to a
meeting unlike any other during the week. It's with her rabbi.
Lingle's victory in the governor's race last November made her a pioneer in
many ways. She is the first Republican to govern Hawaii in 40 years, the
first woman ever. And she's the first Jew to lead the islands, one of only
two Jewish U.S. governors and only the second Jewish woman chief executive
of a state.
Lingle is hesitant to label herself the "Jewish governor" but she fast
admits how much her faith defines her. Judaism is a facet of Lingle's
identity that shapes her leadership perhaps more than being a woman or a
Republican.
"Anyone who was raised in a Jewish family, I think, would feel the same
way," Lingle said in an interview in her Capitol office. "We're defined by
our concern for other people, especially for people who need help, who can't
help themselves."
Lingle's religion was never an issue during her campaign, and it seldom
garners any public attention now. At her inauguration, a rabbi gave an
invocation, but so did a number of Christian leaders.
Lingle attended a public menorah lighting during Hanukkah and last week,
took part in a Passover Seder at Washington Place. On Fridays, a rabbi
arrives at the governor's office with fresh-baked challah for Shabbat. And
in the entryway to her home, a mezuza has been affixed in the doorway.
"She handles it the way Linda Lingle handles most things," said Neil Milner,
a political science professor at the University of Hawaii. "She doesn't make
a big thing out of it, she doesn't wear it on her sleeve."
It is similar to the approach the nation's only other Jewish governor
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell is taking. Rendell says he's "a secular Jew"
whose "faith is embodied in the golden rule."
Fewer than 20 Jews have been elected their state's chief executive since
Georgia's David Emanuel won a gubernatorial race in 1801. Most Jews who have
won the governor's office hail from states where few non-Christians live.
Some Jewish governors, like Idaho's Moses Alexander who helped establish
Idaho's first synagogue after taking office in 1915 have particularly helped
their faith's community.
Lingle has no similar goals for Hawaii's Jews who make up fewer than 1
percent of the state's residents.
Asked if she has any hopes of raising the profile of Hawaii's Jews, Lingle
flatly replies "no." When pressed, Lingle says "through the normal course of
things" she suspects she is garnering more attention for people of her
faith. "But it's not something conscious that I'd like to set out to do."
Perhaps her low-profile approach is a lesson Lingle learned from her
paternal grandmother, who particularly influenced the governor's faith.
"She told a lot of stories and these stories were the kinds of things that
really shaped you," she said. Lingle goes on to relay this account: Her
grandmother was working in a factory and told her boss she needed Yom Kippur
off. "He said, 'Well, if I knew you were Jewish I wouldn't have hired you,'"
Lingle says. "And she said, 'O.K., well, then I quit.'"
Lingle grew up in St. Louis, where she attended services and Sunday school
every week, saving her dimes to plant trees in Israel. "It was a pretty
regular part of life," she said.
Her family moved to California when Lingle was 12 and her parents divorced
soon after. It wasn't until she started classes at California State
University-Northridge that she made non-Jewish friends.
"I was fascinated by it," Lingle said. "I started to realize how many
different religions there were."
After graduation in 1975, the former Linda Cutter moved to Honolulu and a
year later, to Molokai, where she was first elected to the Maui County
Council. She eventually moved to Maui, continuing on the County Council
before being elected mayor. Twice divorced, Lingle, 49, has been single
since 1997.
In 1998, she ran for governor, narrowly losing to incumbent Gov. Ben
Cayetano. When she ran again four years later, backed by a campaign fund
larger than any other in state history, Lingle emerged a winner. And she had
support she said she hadn't expected from the Jewish community.
Lingle's background helped her campaign yield support from national Jewish
groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-
Israel lobbying group. Lingle attracted attention from Jews as far away as
California, New York and Florida, who opened their hearts and checkbooks to
show their backing. Even the Jerusalem Post featured her in a lengthy
feature story and an Israeli Web site declared her "Hawaii's Jewish Queen."
"I'm just so proud to know her," said Laura Stein, a Beverly Hills lawyer
who supported Lingle's candidacy and attended the Seder last week. "I think
she sets the example for so many groups that are underrepresented. She's
like three for one."
Lingle's moderate political stance helps in her appeal to a group that
typically votes Democratic. She supports abortion rights and opposes capital
punishment.
But even Jews who find themselves at odds with the governor's political
stance admit they took some pride seeing Lingle rise so high.
"It demonstrates that Hawaii will continue its tradition of tolerance and
inclusiveness," said state Rep. Brian Schatz, D-Tantalus-Makiki. "From that
perspective, I think we all were proud."
"Regardless of what their party was or their feeling on a particular issue,
they knew what my background growing up Jewish meant," Lingle said. "And
they knew what it said about me as a person."
Meanwhile, Lingle's Monday meetings with Rabbi Yitzchok Krasnjansky
continue. The hello is brief, the study session begins quickly.
At the sessions, in the large living room in the governor's residence, the
rabbi uses Torah readings as a springboard for discussion of spiritual
issues and current events.
"She is very serious about this time," Krasnjansky said. "It seems that she
is getting from it that uplifting message."
Lingle seems to agree.
"It gets my week off to a real good start."
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