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The First Jewish President?

Is President-elect Barack Obama going to be America's first Jewish President? Some Chicago Jews think so. Today, Haaretz ran an article titled, "Some Chicago Jews say Obama is actually the 'first Jewish president.'"

The piece begins with the following.

Quite a few of Barack Obama's "friends from the past" have popped up recently. It's doubtful whether he even knows their names, but in the Chicago Jewish community many people really are long-time friends of the president-elect. Some of the older people in the community say that they "raised him," while others half-jokingly call Obama "the first Jewish president."

We've always known that Obama had remarkably close ties to the Jewish community, but why do they half-jokingly label Obama the first Jewish president?

In an interview with Cathleen Falsani of the Chicago Sun-Times, Obama was asked the question, "What do you believe?"

Obama's answer:

I am a Christian.

So, I have a deep faith. So I draw from the Christian faith.

On the other hand, I was born in Hawaii where obviously there are a lot of Eastern influences.

I lived in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, between the ages of six and 10.

My father was from Kenya, and although he was probably most accurately labeled an agnostic, his father was Muslim.

And I'd say, probably, intellectually I've drawn as much from Judaism as any other faith.

Okay, maybe the first sentence of Obama's response reminds us that he is in fact a Christian, but here's to the first intellectually Jewish President!

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