Dan Shapiro has been named the US ambassador to Israel.
The Jewish press has been abuzz about the news that longtime DC resident—and member of Washington’s venerable Adas Israel synagogue—Dan Shapiro was being named US ambassador to Israel. Given that Adas is located near the Israeli Embassy at Van Ness Street and Reno Road, this announcement raises the possibility of Shapiro and Israeli ambassador Michael Oren conducting business over gefilte fish at a post-service Kiddush.
Mixing diplomacy and davening (Yiddish for “prayer”) is a Washington tradition. In the 1970s, when Yitzhak Rabin was Israel’s ambassador, he attended Adas for the High Holidays with Nixon speechwriter William Safire. The rabbi gave a blistering Yom Kippur sermon advising his congregation “not to let our country be divided and polarized by those who use the technique of alliteration”—an allusion to the Safire-penned speech for Vice President Spiro Agnew criticizing “the nattering nabobs of negativism.” Safire, who had stopped traveling with Agnew to return to DC for the holiday, squirmed. He wrote later that this wasn’t the sin he had come to atone for.
Rabin commiserated with Safire afterward. The writer was grateful for Rabin’s support, and they remained friends despite ideological differences.
This article first appeared in the April 2011 issue of The Washingtonian.
Subscribe to Washingtonian
Follow Washingtonian on Twitter
More>> Capital Comment Blog | News & Politics | Party Photos
Dan Shapiro and Michael Oren: Mixing Diplomacy with Davening
The Jewish press has been abuzz about the news that longtime DC resident—and member of Washington’s venerable Adas Israel synagogue—Dan Shapiro was being named US ambassador to Israel. Given that Adas is located near the Israeli Embassy at Van Ness Street and Reno Road, this announcement raises the possibility of Shapiro and Israeli ambassador Michael Oren conducting business over gefilte fish at a post-service Kiddush.
Mixing diplomacy and davening (Yiddish for “prayer”) is a Washington tradition. In the 1970s, when Yitzhak Rabin was Israel’s ambassador, he attended Adas for the High Holidays with Nixon speechwriter William Safire. The rabbi gave a blistering Yom Kippur sermon advising his congregation “not to let our country be divided and polarized by those who use the technique of alliteration”—an allusion to the Safire-penned speech for Vice President Spiro Agnew criticizing “the nattering nabobs of negativism.” Safire, who had stopped traveling with Agnew to return to DC for the holiday, squirmed. He wrote later that this wasn’t the sin he had come to atone for.
Rabin commiserated with Safire afterward. The writer was grateful for Rabin’s support, and they remained friends despite ideological differences.
This article first appeared in the April 2011 issue of The Washingtonian.
Subscribe to Washingtonian
Follow Washingtonian on Twitter
More>> Capital Comment Blog | News & Politics | Party Photos
Must-Reads
Take Our Restaurant Survey and You Could Win Dinner at a Mike Isabella Restaurant
10 Fall Festivals Near DC That You Don’t Want to Miss
Washingtonian’s Great Places to Work Application
DC is Getting an All-Male Burlesque Brunch
September 2016: How to Dress in DC
More from News & Politics
Hillary Clinton Supporters Had a Good Time Watching the Debate at Trump’s DC Hotel
The Huffington Post’s Eliot Nelson Doesn’t Mind if You Read His Book on the Toilet
Man Stabbed Over Drunk Food in a Crime Most DC
Presidential Debates Aren’t About Style or Substance. They’re About Pressure
Do Women Have to Talk Like Men to Be Taken Seriously? And Should They?
Photos and Scenes From the African American History Museum’s Opening Day
How History Museums Around the US Have Presented the African American Experience
Frederick Could Be an Urban Suburb of DC–Unless Its Good Ol’ Boy Past Gets in Its Way
Most Popular
The Best Cheap Restaurants in Washington, DC
100 Very Best Restaurants
9 New Restaurants to Try Now
How One Couple Transformed a Virginia Estate into the Ultimate Southern Lawn Party Wedding
I Was at the Montgomery Mall During the Shooting. This Is What It Was Like Inside.