A pair of rabbis, a major Jewish financial contributor to the Republican party, and a Jewish United States senator were among the speakers who had their turns at the podium as the Republican National Convention sought to demonstrate the party's inclusiveness to the American public.

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican who represents Pennsylvania and who grew up in Philadelphia, gave a welcoming speech to delegates during the convention's first session, Monday, July 31.

"Gone are the days when W.C. Fields wanted his tombstone inscribed, 'on the whole I would rather be in Philadelphia,'" Specter said. "Today he would say, 'I'm sorry I didn't spend more time in Philadelphia.'"

If Ed Rendell, the former Jewish mayor of Philadelphia who is now the general chairman of the Democratic National Committee, were listening, he may have winced as Specter declared: "I say Philadelphia should be a Republican town, the way it used to be. After all, Philadelphia hosted the first Republican convention in 1856, nominating John C. Fremont for President."

Fremont lost to Democrat James Buchanan, but in 1900 Republicans, meeting again in Philadelphia, picked William McKinley, who won.

"Our party is more inclusive, more diverse and more representative of American than ever before," Specter said. "But we're still the party of limited government -- as Barry Goldwater said, 'We have to keep government out of our pocket books, off our backs and out of our bedrooms."

Rabbi Victor Weissberg, who chairs the chaplaincy commission of the Chicago Board of Rabbis and also is spiritual director at Rosewood Rehabilitation Center, delivered the invocation at the opening of the second session on Monday, July 31.

"Show me Thy ways, O'Lord. Guide me in Thy Truth and instruct me, for Thou art the God of my salvation," Weissberg quoted from the Psalms. Of America's Founding Fathers, who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia, he declared: "Their words are the voice of duty, and the voice of duty is the Voice of God, a commanding voice, asking us to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly as leaders of the free world."

The rabbi prayed that God would "gird us with strength that we may labor to eliminate the debilitating scourges of poverty, violence, ignorance and disease, form all who are caught in the net of tragic circumstances and help all live and labor with hope of better days."

Max Fisher, a longtime financial contributor to the Republican party, also addressed the convention on its first day. "I have lived a life of service to the things I believe are important, the Republican party and the Jewish community, " he said. "Both share the ideals on which our nation was built: commitment, personal responsibility, help for those in need and a belief that we can change the world for the better."

Fisher told the delegates that for his entire life, "I have been dedicated to the ideals of the Republican party and the building of the state of Israel. I do this because Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and because Israel stands for those ideals which we value: freedom, equality and a commitment to help the persecuted.

"Republicans know this and have worked hard over the years in the Congress and White House to maintain and enhance this special relationship," Fisher said. 

"As we say in the Jewish tradition--may we go from strength to strength."

Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance, spoke on Wednesday, Aug. 2, at a session of the convention crafted to highlight the works of non-profit agencies. Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush has called for the creation of partnerships between the government and "mentoring groups that shape and save young lives."

The rabbi began by quoting George Washington's famous letter to the Hebrew congregation in Newport, Rhode Island: "Happily the government of the United States which gives to bigotry no sanction and to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens."

At the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, the message is taught that "the freedoms we cherish are not given in perpetuity; they must be earned and reclaimed every day, and become our legacy to our children," Hier said.

"If there is hate in our homes and schools today, it will be in our boardrooms and factories tomorrow, and from there, this unchecked malignancy can overpower a city and destroy a country. Bosnia...Kosovo...Cambodia...Rwanda.."

He concluded his speech by recalling the words of teenager Anne Frank, a Holocaust victim who perished in Bergen Belsen but whose words live on through her Diary, which has been the subject of books, plays and movies.

"Of the millions who were silenced during the Holocaust, this child's voice...has outlasted the shouts of the murderers," Hier said. "'I want to go on living even after my death,'" Anne wrote. 'My feeling for justice is immovable...I shall work in the world and for mankind...' To work in the world and for mankind is the essence of our Museum."