The First Jewish President

So I was thinking about who would be the first black president, and I was thinking: who would conceivably be the first (practicing) Jewish president of the USA?

Lieberman, Spitzer, and Bloomberg maybe for people that I can think of in this decade but would there be someone else that I didn't think about that there could be a good tl about?
 
Maybe, if the GOP had gone in a different direction and there was no Reagan revolution, you could come up with a scenario in which Jacob Javits gets in.... but I have a feeling he would be more of a VP pick.
 
How 'bout Abraham Ribicoff? I think he was close to LBJ. (IIRC) Not sure if he was practising or just nominally Jewish though.
 
There's a guy named Eric Cantor, Congressman from Virginia ... young, conservative, articulate, Republican. He might be someone to watch in the next decade.

Going back in time, maybe Ed Koch if he had been elected Governor of New York in 1982.
 
I think the easiest POD is to have AL Gore come out on top in the disputed 2000 Presidential Race. However, he is assasinated during the 9/11 attacks and Joe Liebereman becomes the nation's 1st Jewish President. However, Javits would have made an interesting President aswell.
 
What about Henry Kissinger? He was extremely popular and there was an attempt to change the constitution to allow foreign born people to become president. Here's an article from 1974.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944757,00.html

President Kissinger would've definitely been interesting. Had Article II, Section I not been in the Constitution, I could see him beating Reagan in the primaries and then going on to become president in 1980.
 
Judah Benjamin?

What about President Judah Benjamin in a successful CSA? He was the "brains of the confederacy," after all...however, social attitudes in the South towards Jews would be a huge barrier. Still...interesting to think about?

I like the Lieberman succeeding a Gore killed in 9/11 idea a lot...very promising.

FYI, Goldwater's father was Jewish but not his mother, which according to Jewish law means he wasn't Jewish either. In Judaism, Jewish identity is strictly matrilineal...one either is or is not Jewish, there are no halves...
 
What about President Judah Benjamin in a successful CSA? He was the "brains of the confederacy," after all...however, social attitudes in the South towards Jews would be a huge barrier. Still...interesting to think about?

I like the Lieberman succeeding a Gore killed in 9/11 idea a lot...very promising.

FYI, Goldwater's father was Jewish but not his mother, which according to Jewish law means he wasn't Jewish either. In Judaism, Jewish identity is strictly matrilineal...one either is or is not Jewish, there are no halves...

Yes, but there are such individuals as "converts" to Judaism or any other faith.
 
As I doubt, Vice President Biden would seek the Presidency in 2016, assuming Barack Obama wins re-election in 2012, the "future of the Democratic Party" Eliot Spitzer, as proclaimed by Bill Richardson could have well become President. However, if that were to occur, he would have to cruise through his tenure as Governor without experiencing such a dramatic decline in popularity, as seen only months into his governorship. On a second thought, Spitzer without scandal? Now that's implausibility!
 
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