By COLlive reporter
There are two Mormons currently in the race for the Republican nomination for president. And Mitt Romney, the frontrunner, appears to be drawing substantial, if not yet massive, support from Republican Jews nationally, Naomi Zeveloff reports in the Forward.
But Jews in Utah — deeply familiar with their Mormon neighbors — seem simultaneously squeamish about Romney and smitten with Jon Huntsman, former U.S. diplomat and Governor of Utah.
Huntsman has a particularly warm relationship with Rabbi Benny Zippel, Utah’s Chabad-Lubavitch leader, the Forward said.
“When Huntsman was elected governor of Utah in 2004, Zippel invited him to a menorah lighting ceremony at ZCMI, a department store in Salt Lake City.
“This marked the beginning of a spiritual friendship, with Huntsman referring to the Chabad leader as “my rabbi,” according to Zippel.”
As reported on COLlive.com in 2009, Huntsman invited Zippel to join him on a trip to Israel to seek out business partnerships between Israeli and Utah companies.
Rabbi Zippel brought along a Chabad of Utah yarmulke for Huntsman, which he said the candidate wears to Jewish campaign events, the article said.
It was on this trip, Zippel said, that Huntsman received a phone call alerting him that he was tapped to be Obama’s ambassador to China.
In January 2009, COLlive.com reported that Rabbi Zippel delivered the invocation at Governor Huntsman’s second inaugural.
“The citizens of Utah have made as strong a statement possible that Governor Huntsman is worthy of their trust,” the Shliach said at the event on the steps of the State Capitol.
Even when he’s in Washington, Chabad is not far away as he is literally a next door neighbor to the offices of American Friends of Lubavitch in Kalorama/Embassy Row.
In fact, shortly after the Huntsman family moved in to their pricey Washington digs (house went for almost $4 million) they invited Shliach Rabbi Levi Shemtov and his wife Nechama for a visit.
“They were telling us all about their relationship with Chabad in Utah and especially with my good friend, Rabbi Benny,” Rabbi Shemtov, Director of American friends of Lubavitch, told COLlive.com.
“They travelled to Israel together, and he even hosted the Chanukah celebration in the Mansion for a few years while Governor. We joked that Rabbi Zippel is the only shliach who is a gentile, since in Utah if you’re not Mormon they call you a gentile.”
I think the current front “Runner” – NJ”s Chris Christie also has a Chabad Rabbi or two.
Carlebachs, fathernand son….
http://chabadnj.org/page.asp?pageID={EB05C081-0E3E-4F66-9A4D-C5748AB171BA}
yes, that’s Thomas S. Monson, the man believed by the mormon church to be the living “prophet, seer, and revelator”
At least we’ll have a connection with the next President no matter who gets in. Pity Illinois has no representation during this presidency.
That is the President of the Mormon Church…interesting…
http://www.congregationlubavitch.org/photoShow.asp?cat1ID={0ED23013-0FDE-4BEC-B0BD-A88163C89A04}
Mitt Romney lit the Menorah at the Massachusetts State Capitol with Rabbi Rachmiel Lieberman of Congregation Lubavitch of Brookline, Mass. when he was Governor I remember seeing the picture on google.
2%. He’s not a contender in the race, sorry.