Inauguration Day III-Rabbis and Presidents
Saturday, January 20, 1973, was President Richard Nixon’s second inauguration. From a Time magazine article about that day:
Rabbi Seymour Siegel, a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and an ardent Nixon campaign worker, delivered a prayer that is customarily reserved for the presence of kings. Its text: “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast given us of thy glory and flesh and blood.”
Siegel, a prominent support of Nixon and a student of Abraham Joshua Heschel, disappointed his teacher both throughout the campaign and on that day. Since the inauguration was on Shabbat, Siegel was torn over whether to accept Nixon’s invitation, and he decided that he would stay within walking distance of the inauguration and walk to the ceremony. (see here)
January 20th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Siegel, as evidenced from the account of Heschel’s death in Kaplan’s bio, was not personally shomer shabbos.