Rabbi Meir Soloveichik to give the opening invocation in Tampa

This is welcome news, from Tablet magazine:

With all the speculation in recent weeks over whether Mitt Romney would tap a fellow Mormon to deliver a prayer at the Republican National Convention, one never would have guessed that the opening invocation would be delivered by a rabbi. But on Tuesday afternoon, when the convention makes its belated beginning after being postponed due to inclement weather, Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik will be the clergyman kicking off the proceedings.

If the name Soloveichik sounds familiar, that’s no surprise: The 35-year-old rabbi—who graduated summa cum laude from Yeshiva University, then went on to Yale Divinity School, and received his PhD in religion from Princeton in 2010—is a scion of one of Orthodoxy’s most celebrated rabbinic dynasties. And like many of his family members who manage to keep one foot firmly in the Beit Midrash and the other in the public square, Meir Soloveichik certainly gets around...

 

You'll want to read more to learn more:  Soloveichik is "a big fan of Harry Potter" and "has a demonstrated weakness for puns."

One of his bioethics lectures is titled “The Man With Levi’s Genes.”

 

Meanwhile, the Democrats have put together an incredible lineup for their convention. Among the speakers they have scheduled:

Jimmy Carter (who lost to Ronald Reagan)

John Kerry (who lost to George W. Bush)

Charlie Crist (who lost to Marco Rubio) and

Ted Strickland (who lost to John Kasich)

 

And then there are the "wimmin" -- Sandra "free birth control" Fluke and Elizabeth Warren, author of the original "You Didn't Build That," as well as abortion advocates from Planned Parenthood and NARAL. Oh, and let us not forget Eva Longoria, star of a defunct tv series but no doubt a Wise Latina Woman [photo bleeped for Tzniut].

So whaddaya think, will Jeremiah Wright give the Dems' invocation in a repeat performance of his award-winning "G.d. America" or will it be the Reverend Racist Al Sharpton? Or perhaps Rahm Emanuel's new BFF and the savior of Chicago Streets, Louis Farrkhan?

 

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

When I was in college majoring in English Lit, a number of my professors -- feeling compelled, I suppose, by the frequently-heard charge that literary study was impractical and a waste of time -- would launch into lectures on the importance of being "well-rounded." The term has pretty much fallen into disuse; nowadays, if you speak of a "well-rounded man," folks will think you're talking about Chris Christy (although I did have one prof who liked to joke that Winston Churchill was "well-rounded in girth and every other way"). Rabbi Soloveichik is well-rounded in the original meaning of the term: he has a mind that seems comfortably at home wherever it roams. And he writes so clearly that readers who may not know nearly as much as he does will feel comfortably at home with what he's written. I'd put him up in debate against the entire membership of Rabbis For Obama -- but that would be unfair to the RFO crowd. This is a terrific addition to the roster of GOP convention speakers.