Rabbi Dr. Dov S.
Zakheim was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Planning and Resources) from
1985 to 1987. He was Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), Chief DoD
Financial Officer from 2001- 2004 and civilian coordinator for Afghanistan from
2002 to 2004. He holds a B.A. from Columbia University, a doctorate from Oxford
University, and semicha from Hagaon Harav Shmuel Watkin.
The issue of Shabbat also arose
when I met with Donald Rumsfeld at the Four Seasons Hotel within days of
President-elect Bush’s late-December announcement that he was nominating
Rumsfeld to be Secretary of Defense. After Don offered me the job as Under
Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), having told me that “the budget is policy,”
I felt that I had to be open with him about Shabbat. I informed him that I did
not work on Friday nights and Saturdays. He said that was no problem. At that
point I felt slightly guilty and added, “But I do work if life is in danger.”
He responded, “In that case, in the DoD life is always in danger.” I told him, “I
don’t mean routine meetings.” He accepted that.
Indeed, during my tenure from 2001
to 2004, I would delegate my principal deputy to attend meetings that were held
on Saturdays. I only worked on Shabbat and Yom Tov in the aftermath of 9/11,
when our forces were initially deployed to Afghanistan. In fact, I recall that
on Shemini Atzeret (which, that year, fell on October 9, two days after the
start of Operation Enduring Freedom), I managed to realize three “firsts”: It
was the first time I had ever worked on Yom Tov; it was the first time I had
ever been driven in a car on Yom Tov; and it was the first time I was driven
directly from the Pentagon to shul (Kemp Mill Synagogue) to be in time for
Mincha!
During those early days of the war
in Afghanistan, I often found myself working on Friday nights. After all, I had
to ensure that our forces – who, as we all know, comprise all races and
religions – had available funds to speed whatever materiel they needed to the
field. It was indeed a matter of pikuach
nefesh. Nevertheless, I found it to be an “out-of-body” experience, and I
never felt comfortable doing what I knew I needed to do. Indeed, although my staff
– all of whom were not Jewish – knew the “rule” that life-threatening
emergencies overrode Shabbat laws, they were deeply concerned that I was
missing Friday night services. They would urge me to hurry up and finish my
work so that I could get home quickly.
On the other hand, the only time
when I was pushed to work late on erev
Shabbat was when I was still a relatively junior official, working for a Jewish
assistant secretary. One Friday afternoon in the early winter, as I was about
to leave the office, he told me, “I’ll give you a dispensation to work late.” I
replied, “Only G-d gives dispensations, and He hasn’t given me one.”
I had little difficulty with
issues such as travel on Shabbat. I simply worked my flights around that day.
With respect to other requirements related to my religious practice, I would
tell the military to treat me as they did Senator Joseph Lieberman, who was a
member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and therefore made many overseas
trips to military facilities. I never had any challenges in that regard.
Throughout my government career, I
never encountered any degree of anti-Semitism. In fact, I can only recall one
instance where a two-star general made an off-hand remark that might have been
interpreted as demeaning Jewish practice. On the other hand, when the Pentagon
organized my swearing-in ceremony, in the presence of not only Secretary
Rumsfeld and other senior government officials but also foreign ambassadors
from numerous countries, Rabbi Jack Bieler, then the mara d’asra of Kemp Mill Synagogue, privileged the audience with
his remarks. I should add that when my father, zt”l, was niftar in 2002,
I was able to assemble a minyan for Kaddish in my office. A number of the
people attending told me that this was the first time they had attended a minyan since their bar mitzvahs decades
earlier.
When I did find myself (and my
young children) harassed, sadly, it was by my fellow Jews. This took place in
the mid-1980s, when I led the Defense Department’s effort to analyze the costs
of Israel’s Lavi fighter aircraft project, concluding that the costs outweighed
the benefits of expending U.S. dollars for its completion. What most pro-Israel
American Jews did not realize was that not only Defense Minister Yitzchak Rabin
but also Air Force Chief of Staff Avihu Bin Nun, as well as IDF Deputy Chief of
Staff Dan Shomron (who then rose to be IDF Chief of Staff) opposed the project.
On the other hand, I asked for,
and received, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger’s approval to work with
the Israeli Navy on developing and funding their plans for a new, more capable
submarine called the Dolphin, as well as for building a new class of corvettes
(small but powerful surface ships) called the Sa’ar Five. This effort proved
very successful; both programs were funded. The submarine is now the backbone
of Israel’s deterrent force, especially against Iran.
Moreover, the funds that Israel
saved from not proceeding with the Lavi not only covered the costs of the
submarine and the surface ships but also those of the Merkava tank, which has
proved itself in numerous Israeli land force operations. The funds that were
saved also helped launch Israel’s missile defense program – which I first
suggested to Defense Minister Rabin in 1987 and which led to the development of
the Arrow anti-missile system – as well as Israel’s satellite program. Israel
was also able to acquire an upgraded version of the F-16 fighter jet, which my
team of experts had concluded was far more capable as a multi-role (air-to-air
and air-to-ground) system than the Lavi aircraft would have been. None of this
would have been possible if the Lavi project had gone ahead, given the level of
American foreign military financing for Israel at that time.
Like Senator Lieberman, I was not the
only, nor the most senior, Orthodox Jew to hold a top government position.
Others have included Jack Lew, who successively served as Deputy Secretary of
State, President Obama’s Chief of Staff, and Secretary of the Treasury; Tevi
Troy, who served as Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services in the George
W. Bush Administration; and, of course, Jared Kushner, Assistant to President
Trump. Where I differed from them was that, in addition to my sub-cabinet
office, which made me the equivalent of a minister of state or deputy minister
in other countries, I also had received smicha.
That made me the first Diaspora Jew to be a musmach
and an official government minister (as opposed to the many “court Jews” who
never were permitted to be formal government officials) in half a millennium,
if not longer.
Perhaps because of that rather
unusual combination, I looked to my long-standing role model, Nehemiah ben
Hachaliah, for both moral and halachic inspiration. Nehemiah was more than just
a cupbearer to the king. Ancient Near Eastern records indicate that cupbearers
were powerful courtiers, which may be the reason Persian Emperor Artaxerxes
agreed to his request to lead a military unit to Jerusalem. Nehemiah proceeded
to rebuild the city’s walls; organize its defenses; promote economic reform;
promulgate the first-ever national constitution; together with Ezra, lead a
major ceremonial procession; advocate for the use of Hebrew in households; and
institute new halachot that ever since have been normative. As a prototype of
what in contemporary terms is a “modern Orthodox” Jew, he was an inspiration.
Subsequent to my departure from
government, I drew upon my experience, as well as Shabbat lectures that I had
given between Mincha and Ma’ariv at KMS, to publish a biography of Nehemiah,
entitled Nehemiah: Statesman and Sage (Maggid,
2016) and an article providing halachic perspectives for officials serving in
or dealing with the United States government
(https://www.jewishideas.org/article/practicing-jews-serving-national-security-community-dr
dov-zakheim). The former has become a popular volume in Tanach study groups;
the latter has proved useful for others who wish to blend their government
service with commitment to halacha.
My government service placed me in
a position to argue on behalf of fellow Jews wherever they might be. I was able
to support the organization Asra Kadisha (The Committee for the Preservation of
Gravesites) when it sought to protect cemeteries in locales such as Cairo.
Because of my access to senior leaders, I assisted those visiting the grave of
Rav Nachman of Bratslav, who were having difficulties with the local population
of Uman. And I am proud to have been part of the team that rescued Jewish
materials, including important sefarim,
from Iraq, conveying them to America by military air.
There is no reason why one cannot
simultaneously serve Hashem, one’s country, and the Jewish people. It was my zechut to do all three.
This article is
reprinted with permission from the Journal of the Vaad Harabanim of Greater
Washington: Tishrei 2022.
