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President Biden told a group of rabbis on Thursday that he was “raised in the synagogues” of Delaware — after previously claiming to have been raised by the state’s then-tiny Puerto Rican community.
“I, you might say, was raised in the synagogues of my state. You think I’m kidding, I’m not,” Biden said during a call ahead of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish new year holiday that begins Friday.
The 80-year-old cited the Beth Shalom congregation in Wilmington, Del., as “the home of countless friends for me.” He named three rabbis, including a current one at the synagogue.
Biden’s 2007 memoir “Promises to Keep” doesn’t contain a single use of the word “synagogue” and its seven uses of the words “Jews” and “Jewish” all are when discussing history or politics. Beth Shalom is not mentioned. His 2017 book “Promise Me, Dad” has similarly sparse mentions of Judaism.
Biden previously drew scrutiny in Puerto Rico last year when he said that “I was sort of raised in the Puerto Rican community at home, politically,” even though a paltry 2,000 Puerto Ricans lived in Delaware when he was launching his career and he had not previously described a significant connection to the community.
originally posted by: strongfp
a reply to: FlyersFan
If you do some basic digging you find he's said similar statements in the past, admitted to visiting synagogue and church growing up, and all three of his kids have had or are married to Jewish spouses... it does seem like the Biden family has ties to Jewish communities. Why he left those aspects out of his memoir? Who knows, but he is a politician, so he's probably hyperbolic on these statements to pander to the Jewish community.
Biden previously has told contested stories about his purported civil rights activism, including claiming without evidence that he was arrested during protests.
At other points, Biden has said he wasn’t so involved.
“During the 1960s, I was in fact very concerned about the civil rights movement,” Biden said in 1987. “I was not an activist.I worked at an all-black swimming pool in the east side of Wilmington, Delaware. I was involved in what they were thinking, what they were feeling. I was involved, but I was not out marching. I was not down in Selma, I was not anywhere else. I was a suburbanite kid who got a dose of exposure to what was happening to black Americans in my own city.”
Biden has a habit of telling factually questionable stories when attempting to relate to his audiences.
Biden in 2021 told Jewish leaders that he remembered “spending time at” and “going to” Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018 after the worst anti-Semitic attack in US history, in which 11 people were murdered. The synagogue said he never visited and the White House later said he was thinking about a 2019 phone call to the synagogue’s rabbi.
Later that month, Biden told an Idaho audience that his “first job offer” came from local lumber and wood products business Boise Cascade. The company said it was news to them.
Biden said at the Naval Academy’s graduation ceremony last May — and again at the Air Force Academy this June — that he was appointed to the prestigious Annapolis military college by the late Sen. J. Caleb Boggs (R-Del.). A search of Boggs’ archives failed to turn up evidence of the appointment.
Last month, Biden claimed while discussing wildfire devastation in Hawaii that his Delaware house “almost collapsed” from a small kitchen fire nearly two decades ago — after telling survivors one week prior that firefighters “ran into flames” to rescue first lady Jill Biden. At a fire prevention summit in October, he claimed “we almost lost a couple firefighters” — prompting the local fire department to release a statement calling the blaze “insignificant.”
On Monday, the president said that he was at Ground Zero in Manhattan one day after the collapse of the Twin Towers in 2001 — and that he personally watched a fireball as the Pentagon was struck by a hijacked jet on 9/11. Both claims, uttered on the 22nd anniversary, conflicted with descriptions from his autobiography and the White House later said he was thinking of a trip to New York nine days after the attacks.
originally posted by: strongfp
a reply to: RazorV66
It's not defending. It's called setting the story straight. Something ATS has seemingly strayed from recently. Poor reporting needs to be called out.
originally posted by: strongfp
You post one source, a tabloid at that.
Basic research into the people who you critique isn't some novel concept.
President Biden, who has never taught a single semester-long course at the University of Pennsylvania, mused on Thursday about when he used to “teach political theory” at the Ivy League school.
“Our democracy is under attack, and we got to fight for it,” Biden, 80, said during a speech at Maryland’s Prince George’s Community College.
“I taught at the University of Pennsylvania for four years and I used to teach political theory. And folks, you always hear, every generation has to fight for democracy.”
Biden was an honorary professor at the Philadelphia school, serving as the Benjamin Franklin presidential professor of the practice from February 2017 to April 2019, between his term in the White House as vice president and the start of his presidential campaign.
President Biden, who has never taught a single semester-long course at the University of Pennsylvania, mused on Thursday about when he used to “teach political theory” at the Ivy League school.
“Our democracy is under attack, and we got to fight for it,” Biden, 80, said during a speech at Maryland’s Prince George’s Community College.
“I taught at the University of Pennsylvania for four years and I used to teach political theory. And folks, you always hear, every generation has to fight for democracy.”
Biden was an honorary professor at the Philadelphia school, serving as the Benjamin Franklin presidential professor of the practice from February 2017 to April 2019, between his term in the White House as vice president and the start of his presidential campaign.
originally posted by: strongfp
a reply to: FlyersFan
You post one source, a tabloid at that.
Just use your critical thinking skills and you'll find that he and his family have ties to Jewish communities, and he's made similar statements in the past.
It's part him pandering to certain minorities, and him embracing what has come into his family sphere. And it's also part of his wierd humor like the time he joked about being Greek.
You know, for a whole bunch of people who spend all day complaining about the man, they sure don't bother to try and figure out what he's actually like as a person.
Ever since I dug into his past about his involvements in spreading American imperialism and NATO expansion I first found out who he was. Basic research into the people who you critique isn't some novel concept.