Abraham A. Ribicoff Quotes
I never thought I'd see the day when a man of the Jewish faith had to plead before a group of Irish Catholics about allowing another Irish Catholic to be nominated for the position
Kennedy had never been at the left wiing of the Democratic Party. His father, Joseph Kennedy, was known to all Irish Catholic politicans and disliked by most. He had supported big finance and business and was no great friend of labor. He was fired by FDR for publicly supporting Hitler before WWII and urging non support of England. He badmouthed FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt--Democratic icons. President Truman had to be stopped by a Secret Service agent from throwing the elder Kennedy out the window of a Boston hotel. He was a nasty man who threw his money around. But Senator Kennedy himself had never said a word criticizing Joeseph McCarthy or comdemning McCarthism and his other exceses leaving the criticism to other Democrats and even Republicans. (His silence was at the advice of his father.) Ribicoff a strong liberal knew Kennedy well and felt that Kennedy would not be constrained by his father's views, and that Kennedy was a true liberal at heart and would demonstrate that if elected President.
Abraham A. Ribicoff, 1910-1998, U. S. Congressman & U. S. Senator (Democrat, CT), Governor of Connecticut, U. S. Secretary of Health Education & Welfare, Statement to an Irish Catholic Democratic Party leadership group who had some concerns about the Presidential nomination of John F. Kennedy
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Kennedy was a Roman Catholic and there was a great deal of anti-Catholic prejudice in the country then. Al Smith, the only Catholic who had run for the Presidency, was defeated with almost all his opposition coming from anti-Catholic forces appealing to the then popular prejudice that if a Catholic became President, the Pope and the Vatican would be running America. Richard Nixon, a master politician with few scruples, cleverly kept raising the religious question in the voters minds by saying that he would not make Kennedy’s religion and issue of the campaign. Kennedy barely won.
Medved, a Jew, maintained that as America became more interested in Christianity, there would also be more interest in Judaism, and true Christianity—American Christianity—which would not be anti-Semitic as many earlier Christian movements had been. Most Jews disagreed preferring a strict separation of church and state. While it may be true that some Christian groups are favorably disposed to Jews, historically must American Christian groups have been supportive of anti-Semitic activities in the United States.
Kennedy was being hurt be fears that as a Catholic, he would be beholden to the Pope and the Catholic Bishops. There were many protestants who believed that the Catholic Church was antithetical to democracy and some who even believed that Catholicism was the religion of Satan. Kennedy decided to confront the issue head on.
His protest was focused on Middle East policies which he believed did not value the lives of Muslims as highly as Christians and Jews. The irony of this protest is that United States policy claims to value all life equally as do virtually all industrialized democracies. Omeish however is unusual among world Islamic leaders and politicians in that he values Christian and Jewish life as much as Muslim. Most, typically value Muslims almost exclusively and many advocate the killing of Christians and Jews.
The place of non-Muslims in an Islamic country, if any, has been a point of great anxiety among Christians, Jews, Bhais, and others. These have been persecuted and expelled from numerous Islamic countries while in others such as modern Turkey there is no problem. This particular cleric is seen as more “modern” and “liberal” than most. Even he has little concept of equality and freedom of religion.
In 1856 Turkey and its Ottoman Empire was struggling with new ideas and attempts to reform before they were hopelessly engulfed by modernism. A set of reform laws were passed in February of 1856 which horrified the conservatives and traditionalists. But interestingly the orthodoxy of the Greek minority were unhappy with their legal elevation if it meant that all would be equal. The Minister’s description of opposition to the reforms was somewhat self-serving in that he opposed most of the reforms and wanted to maintain the traditional Islamic state.
Abraham Alexander Ribicoff was an American Democratic Party politician from the state of Connecticut. He represented Connecticut in the United States House of Representatives and Senate and was the 80th Governor of Connecticut and Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in President John F. Kennedy's cabinet. He was Connecticut's first and to date only Jewish governor.
