Modern Orthodox Take Over the United States Government

Attorney General Robert Mukasey's wife was the head of school at Ramaz. Now Bush appoints Ramaz-grad Tevi Troy as Deputy Sec. of Health and Human Services. Jonah Goldberg writes:

Tevi is my oldest friend in Washington. I replaced him at the American Enterprise Institute. It's kind of wild to think that he's running the largest civilian bureaucracy in America, with 1 in 4 tax dollars cycling through his shop. I remember the days we spent our time debating DC vs. Marvel and pretending we understood Leo Strauss. Anyway it was very cool to watch, and a bit weird. The Commissioned Corps of the Public Health service provided an amazing amount of pomp and circumstance. Who knew Tevi gets his own flag? Anyway, it was deeply gratifying to see Tevi prosper. Being a committed conservative at a bureaucracy like HHS is ultimately a thankless effort at damage control, I suspect. But I can't think of someone better suited to make the best of his task.

This is the same Tevi Troy who wrote back in 2001:

A WOMAN I RECENTLY MET at a Bat Mitzvah asked me what I do for a living. Experience told me what was coming, so I kept my answer generic: I work in politics. She followed up, pressing until she got the answer she wanted--or, more accurately, did not want: I work for Senator John Ashcroft, Republican of Missouri. I'm used to fellow Jews disliking my boss, but her answer still took me by surprise: "I'm speechless."

WITH HIS NOMINATION TO BE GEORGE W. Bush's attorney general, Ashcroft's image among my co-religionists seems to have deteriorated even further. The National Council of Jewish Women opposes his appointment. Jewish senators like Barbara Boxer and Charles Schumer have expressed their displeasure. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said this week, "We question whether his religious views will have an impact on his role as attorney general." I'm beginning to wonder whether I'll ever be able to safely cruise Bat Mitzvah buffet tables again.

CRITICS IMPLY THAT ASHCROFT, because of his strong Christian beliefs, is intolerant of Jews. Actually, he's more than tolerant; he's downright philo-Semitic. Ashcroft was born to a gentile family in a predominantly Jewish Chicago neighborhood. His mother served as a Shabbos goy, turning ovens on and off as needed (a practice many Jews found charming when practiced by a young Colin Powell-but then Powell is African American and pro-choice). Ashcroft's father even took a mezuzah with the family when they moved from Chicago to Springfield, Missouri, where he kept it affixed to his doorpost until his death, in 1995. Ashcroft, I'd wager, knows more about Judaism than half the Jewish members of the Senate.

WHEN I FIRST TOLD ASHCROFT THAT, as an observant Jew, I would not be able to work on Saturdays and certain holidays, it was a point in my favor, not a strike against me. Once, I stood up during a Friday afternoon briefing and said I needed to leave. He asked me where I was going, as it is unusual for staffers to walk out of briefings. I told him that the sun was setting, and he immediately understood and ordered me to hurry along.

ASHCROFT, HIS DETRACTORS suggest, is a religious fanatic, because his religion dictates that he cannot smoke, gamble, drink, curse, or dance. But it may be precisely because he is scorned as a "fanatic" that he has been so tolerant of my own somewhat odd religious practices. After all, when I go to weddings, I won't participate in mixed dancing. I fast half a dozen times a year, and I unscrew the lightbulb in my refrigerator every Friday so I won't turn on the light on the Sabbath. I'm every bit the "fanatic" that he is-maybe more so.

WHAT MOST LIBERALS AND MOST Jews don't understand about people like Ashcroft is that their deep respect for religious faith genuinely transcends sectarian divides. And that often makes it easier for me, as a religious Jew, to work for them than for Jews or Christians who don't take any religion seriously as a force in people's lives. In my experience, when you tell a nonobservant Jewish boss you need time off for Shavuot, there is often a moment of discomfort, as if he thinks you are acting superior for taking off what many Jews see as a minor holiday. When you tell an observant gentile, he may ask you what the holiday is and then say he is happy that you are observing Pentecost.

AS SENATOR, ASHCROFT HELD A voluntary Bible study in his office every morning. I didn't go and suffered no adverse consequences. But the office's other Orthodox Jewish staffer--Ashcroft may well have employed more Orthodox Jews than any other senator--attended regularly. And every other attendee, including the senator, was impressed by this staffer's knowledge and understanding of the Old Testament. Whenever staffers ate with the senator, someone began the meal with a prayer. While the prayers were of the Christian extemporized variety--as opposed to the Jewish approach of reciting specific blessings for specific foods--they were ecumenical in content. In fact, Ashcroft pointedly insisted that prayers not mention Jesus, in order to be inclusive of all the religions in the office.