This has to send a potent message to Lieberman. The symbolism is simply stunning. Rabbis protesting outside Joe Lieberman's home in Stamford? This from a man who nine years ago had huge approval ratings in his home state and was within a hair of becoming the first Jewish vice-president.
From the Danbury News Times.
STAMFORD -- Quietly holding candles, hundreds of clergymen, congregants and reform advocates lined the sidewalks outside Independent U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman's Stamford home Sunday night in a show of support for universal health care.
"When we heard not only would he vote against it, but he'd use his power, his position as a swing vote ... to block it from coming to a vote, we had to send a message so he knows people who vote overwhelmingly favor the public option," said Rabbi Stephen Fuchs, of Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford.
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The vigil began at Stamford High School, Lieberman's alma mater, and ended at the senator's home, the Hayes House, across the street.
"In some sense, it's poetic," said Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy, who attended the vigil. "The place where Sen. Joseph Lieberman received his high school education, the place he visited upon his announcement to seek the vice presidency, a place where his run for the presidency began -- and it just so happens, a place across the street from where he lives."
--Sen Joseph Lieberman, Nov 8, on Fox News Sunday.
Rabbi Fish of Beth El, in Norwalk, calls on Lieberman's conscience to do the right thing. His invocation of the Torah commandment (Lo taamod al dam reakha, "Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbors") was especially poignant.
"The moral imperative for our time is clear. Anyone whose guide in public policy is conscience, anyone who argues that faith and religious traditions should direct our actions, such a person must stand for universal health care in America," Fish concluded. "It happens we are all also citizens of Connecticut. That fact leads us to ask you Senator Lieberman, what is it that you stand for?"
An estimated crowd of 475 files out of Stamford High School to hold a candle light vigil outside of Sen. Joseph Lieberman's Strawberry Hill Ave. apartment building in Stamford, Conn. on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009 urging to withdraw his opposition to the public option in the health care reform bill. The event was held by the Interfaith Fellowship for Universal Health Care.