Dare to be a Danielle

 

Dare to be a Danielle

Dare to stand alone
Dare to have a purpose firm
Dare to make it known

In the chaos that is the United States of America we've been hearing about the firings and forced retirements of thousands of government workers on the orders of an un-elected billionaire on behalf of another supposed billionaire and convicted felon who should never have been able to run for any office, let alone the presidency.

We are also hearing about a growing number of officials and attorneys who are resigning rather than compromise their own integrity or break the law in what has become an autocracy over a matter of weeks. 

You may be aware that a decision was made to drop serious criminal charges against the mayor of New York City for purely political reasons and that the prosecutor quit rather than follow this directive. It was a principled decision by an attorney, Danielle Sassoon,  who refused to be untrue to the law, her values, and her faith, although she never cited her religion.

                                                    Daniel's Answer to the King -- Briton Riviere (1892)

 I admired her from the moment I read about this stand and I'm now intrigued by the faith aspect.  When I was a child we sang a little chorus that began "dare to be a Daniel", referring to the Jewish leader who refused to bow down before King Nebuchadnezzar. He was thrown into a den of lions but was miraculously delivered. I've altered that first phrase in recognition of Danielle. Thank God for people with  moral fortitude in the midst of the lions of corruption. 

 Here is a portion of an opinion piece from the New York Times written by retired rabbi Jeffrey Salkin:

In late January, Danielle R. Sassoon, who was serving as the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, had a meeting with Adams’ lawyers and Emil Bove, the Justice Department official who ordered her to drop the case. 

She refused and wrote a remarkable letter, in which she explained why the prosecution of Adams was justified. The order to dismiss the case was “inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts,” she said.

Instead of complying with the order, she resigned her position, as did the officials who oversaw the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, Kevin O. Driscoll and John Keller. Now, it is up to a Manhattan federal judge whether to drop the corruption case against Adams. 

Sassoon is not only a moral hero for America. She is a modern Jewish heroine as well.

She grew up Orthodox and is a product of the Ramaz School in New York City, where she excelled in Talmud. Studying at Harvard University, she held a leadership position with Harvard Students for Israel, according to a profile in The New York TiAs a conservative, and as a Trump appointee, Sassoon might have been expected to remain mute and simply follow orders. She did not. 

In her decision, she relied on American legal precedent. But she did so, consciously or not, by drawing on her Jewish background. “I have always considered it my obligation to pursue justice impartially, without favor to the wealthy or those who occupy important public office, or harsher treatment for the less powerful,” she said.

In her heroism, she channeled the words of this week’s Torah portion: “Do not take bribes, for bribes blind the clear-sighted and upset the pleas of those are in the right” (Exodus 23:8). Liberal Jews love the phrase from Deuteronomy 16:11, “Justice, justice you shall pursue.” But we rarely have seen justice pursued as effectively as we did this past week.