Praise the lord, who is one, Maureen Dowd remembers Bill Safire today and says what the Times had refused to tell us, that religion was central to him (Israel too, Maureen), and in that, Jewish parochialism:
He would have appreciated the fact that his obits ran on Yom Kippur. He had a famous dinner every year at his home in Chevy Chase, Md., to break the fast that gathered many of the city’s most influential players.
Curious, I pestered him for years for an invite. He patiently explained it was just for Jews or people who were, or had been, married to Jews.
After years of pleading, including many protestations that I had had Jewish boyfriends and that I would one day find a Jewish husband, he broke down and let me come.
He was a mensch. And that’s no mishegoss.
A friend comments on the matter: "Safire’s social influence? Take a look at Maureen Dowd’s column today. Less and more than a eulogy–revealing her relationship with Safire to have been safely friendly and mildly flirtatious; but there’s a surprise at the end, which bears out your theory of the centrality (and the suppressed public awareness) of the Jewish presence in the American political and journalistic establishment. You might think Maureen Dowd has long been close enough to power to be satisfied with her status. It turns out there was one thing wanting: an invitation to the power dinner which William Safire was famous for giving at the end of the Yom Kippur holiday…."
