Yid Vid: Michelle Obama’s Rabbi Cousin Has Some Advice for the President
Rabbi Capers Funnye, Jr., a cousin of First Lady Michelle Obama, is calling on President Obama to make Middle East peace “a top priority” of his administration. Funnye appears with a handful of other rabbis in a five-minute video, created before the inauguration by the organization Brit Tzedek v’Shalom – Jewish Alliance for Justice & Peace — pleading with the new president to promote a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. “There is no time left to walk softly and hope for the best,” Funnye, who attended his in-law’s inauguration Tuesday, says in the video.
On behalf of Brit Tzedek, Funnye, adds: “As Jewish clergy, we pledge to mobilize our people behind your leadership for a mutually acceptable two-state solution. We pledge to support you through difficult, trying times and to celebrate with you when the job is done.”
Funnye is the spiritual leader of Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago.
Other rabbis in the video ask President Obama to move quickly to appoint a high-level Middle East Envoy.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO