Obama's 'rabbi' remembered

The Midwest’s oldest Jewish congregation said “goodbye” today to the man some called “Obama’s rabbi.”

Throughout his storied 84-year-life, Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf had far more claims to fame than his friendship with President-elect Barack Obama that started about 15 years ago.

The KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation’s longtime rabbi — who suffered an apparent heart attack Tuesday — was an early advocate of civil rights who lobbied against the Vietnam war and urged Israel to make peace with the Palestinians.

But this morning, as congregants packed the ornate synagogue on Hyde Park Boulevard across the street from Obama’s home, references to Wolf’s friendship with the president-elect were frequent.

The service even started with a reading of the statement Obama issued in Hawaii, where Obama was attending his grandmother’s memorial service. Obama said he was “deeply saddened’’ by Wolf’s death and called him “not just our neighbor, but a dear friend to Michelle and me.

“Wolf’s name is synonymous with service, social action,’’ Obama continued. He was “a tireless advocate of peace for the United States, Israel and the world.”

When a Chicagoan talks about an elected official’s “rabbi,” that is often slang for the official’s political sponsor. So some would say Obama’s “rabbi” is State Sen. President Emil Jones, who knew Obama from his community organizer days and groomed him as a rising start in the Illinois senate. But the real rabbi to whom the Christian Obama was closest was Wolf.

In fact, Obama’s critics used his friendship with Wolf to wrongly suggest Obama agreed with Wolf’s “peacenik” approach to the Middle East conflict.

But much to Wolf’s chagrin, despite their friendship, the two men didn’t always agree.

Wolf even lamented in interviews that he was never able to bring Obama around to his way of thinking on Israeli-Palestinian relations during their many conversations over the years, some of which included Palestinian scholar Rashid Khalidi, a former University of Chicago professor. (Khalidi also has said Obama never tipped his hand as to whether he agreed with Khalidi’s views.)

When Obama visited Israel last summer, Wolf told the Sun-Times, “I think he’s very cautious. That’s good if you want to be elected. It’s not brilliant. It’s not super-courageous. It’s cautious, intelligent, appropriate.”

Wolf still enthusiastically backed Obama throughout his rising political career. He held a coffee for Obama when he ran for state senator. Wolf was so impressed with the young politician that he once told Obama he could be vice-president someday.

“He said, ‘Why not president?’ ” Wolf recalled with a laugh.

Wolf eagerly supported Obama for president, and his children and grandchildren campaigned for him in Illinois and Iowa. Wolf, noting that he had argued with Pres. Bush’s Middle East advisor Paul Wolfowitz since the two were at Yale together, said Obama would be a vast improvement over Bush.

At Wolf’s service today, son-in-law A.O. Scott, film critic for the New York Times, recounted Wolf’s legendary bluntness.

“We were so lucky to have him, all of him -- the loving parts, the meshuganah (crazy) parts,” Edwards said.

Wolf was buried at Mt. Mayriv Cemetery on Chicago’s Northwest Side after the services.