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CTPP97B_2024-09-07-19-29-26

I'm Mark Sudha. Welcome back to Power and politics. There's a new documentary coming out about the late Joe Lieberman. It's called centered Joe Lieberman. It traces the Stanford natives transition from Connecticut state politics to his mission to find an alternative candidate. President. There are private screenings now, but the documentary officially comes out in November. Rabbi Daniel Cohen from congregation of Good Chom in Stanford joins us now. Welcome. Thank you very much. It's wonderful to be back. You're here to talk about this and you also have, have a book with you. Tell us about this. Sure. So first of all, uh Senator Lieberman uh grew up in Stanford and his uh hometown synagogue was a good, he left to go to New Haven uh during a lot of his career when I became the rabbi in Stanford, he came back to go to CLO and we developed a very strong friendship and it really related in many ways to a book that I wrote called uh what will they say about you when you're gone? Creating a life of legacy. And I wanted to interview people who I would call soulful celebrities, individuals that led life at the highest frequency, people of principle, people who focused on eternal impact and right in my congregation, I asked Senator Lieberman, I said, would you be willing to be interviewed? And he was so gracious and I was able really to get into his heart and soul and understand what the influences were in his life. And in fact, he wrote the forward to the book and he's featured on one of the chapters called Courageous Choices. You know, when you look on a life, uh King Solomon says, better to have a good name than all the wealth in the world. And when you think about Senator Joe Lieberman and he said this and it's in the book, I don't wanna be remembered for playing life safe. I wanna be remembered for doing what's right. And he was a politician of integrity and really, that opened up a whole new conversation with him uh that really deepen our journey and our personal relationship. And I mean, you knew Joe personally, what kind of a guy was, he? He was a person who could walk with the kings, but also walk with every man. He would come to synagogue as a regular Joe and he would eat afterwards with people. He would, as they say in Yiddish kibbutz with people. Um but a person also at the same time, you know, was associating with uh you know, great leaders, but he walked with humility and I think that's something that's really lacking in leadership today. He didn't wake up in the morning asking what do I want? He asked in the morning, what does God want of me? And what can I do to help, help make this world a better place? He was a person also who didn't hold a grudge, a person who wasn't vengeful. And as we all know, he was centered, he didn't look to find the extremes. He understood that we gotta find common ground. And that was also one of his, um, really, uh, tremendous character traits. Yeah. What else do you think that our local leaders and national leaders could learn from someone like Joe Lieberman? Well, there's a lot they can learn from him. I mean, he didn't take himself too seriously in a sense. I mean, he understood that and I said this at the eulogy. He understood that his soul was not his role. A lot of people become very self inflated and they just focus on what can be done for me. And I'll give you a great example at the end of the funeral. Um There was a big traffic jam, the place was packed at the synagogue and who was waiting to get out the door, who was waiting in traffic, Vice President Al Gore. And I said when he was vice president, the whole place would have cleared out for him, but he's just Al Gore. He happened to be Vice president. We're senators, we're congressmen, whatever we are, that's not really who we are. You're just here to serve others and to serve God. And to me the message of humility to recognize again that we're here for a higher purpose to walk with humility, to be forgiving, to try to come to common ground. Um One of the most important character traits and here's another, he was a man of faith and he wasn't afraid to proclaim it. Um And that really um inspired others. We were at a private screening in Colorado last week and a Catholic woman said he gave me the faith to be public with my faith because when I saw him walking to synagogue on Shabbat and I saw him so focused on what God wanted him to do. It opened up my own sense of pride, not to hide my faith, but really to be guided by my faith in a public way. So what do people, what should they get out of this documentary? I think they have a sense of really, uh Joe Lieberman, the human, the man deeply devoted to his wife and to his family, somebody who also really understood that he was here to serve others. I mean, you really see in this documentary, pivotal moments in American Jewish history and how he was involved in it, but also in a very um heartwarming way, people across the political divide who understood how special this person was and how he should serve as a beacon for us. We're living in a time of great political divide. Joe Lieberman's spirit and legacy is needed in our country now, more than ever, that was gonna be my next question. You, you answered that one perfectly. Um, he, he was such a magnetic person though, at the same time, I mean, as you mentioned, religious and, uh, in some ways was, you know, kind of kept to himself, but he really did reach across the is and I think really brought people together. He did. I mean, you know, right after certainly, uh uh you know, uh in 911, he was a person who understood with uh whether Democrat or Republican, the common interest of our country in terms of security. And I would say also he was a person who understood friendship is what's most important. He didn't demonize people. He understood that he wanted to try to find the face of God in every human being. He didn't dig for the dirt that's politics. Today. He mined for the gold. And I think that those friendships, I mean, I have so many stories of people that came to me and said, Joe Lieberman remembered my name and I was mostly moved by his chief of staff. People who are the employees felt that he was concerned for them as a human being. And that's really where it all starts. In the 30 seconds we have left. Where can people watch this? And when. So it's gonna actually come out as a premiere in DC in November. Um, there is a website which I can let you know about. I think it's called Center Joe Lieberman, but I'll give you the exact details. Um, and there should be a trailer, uh, that's coming out very soon. Rabbi Daniel Cohen, thank you so much for being here. It's an honor to be here to help pay tribute to the great Senator Joseph Lieberman. Well, Pizza Wars, the hot and Saucy debate that Governor Lamont is having with the Governor of New Jersey and it's all about pizza.

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CTPP97C_2024-09-07-17-58-02

So the question is who's got the best pizza? Well, Connecticut is not the only state staking that claim Governor Lamott posted on X this week showing off new welcome signs in Connecticut, one of which reads home of the pizza capital of the United States. Well, New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy saw that he fired back saying you're not even the pizza capital of the tri state area. Here's more on the pizza war. There's a saucy debate stringing over two states about the best pizza. It's come down to a doughy tug of war between Connecticut and New Jersey. I couldn't tell you a single pizza place in New Jersey. I don't think they even have pizza in Jersey. We went to Frank Pepe's home of the original tomato pie started in New Haven in 1925. Why is Connecticut pizza better than New Jersey? Connecticut pizza has a distinct style. You know, we have the char we've got the coal fired ovens, having had my share of Pepe's and Sally's pizza. I have to agree. This is the best and one of the first, but some people don't think so. For me, it's New York, Connecticut is a close second. There's tons of pizza places in my area. Tom De Marino is from New York and is trying Frank Pepe's New Haven style for the first time. It also has like a, like a home ho, homemade, uh, grandma grandpa style. It's like a combo. So, yeah, I'll give it like an 8.5. I'm not sure how this is going to pan out. All I know is the two states are looking for a Beats treaty. Our sister station news 12, New Jersey's also hit up some pizza shops to show why the Garden State has the best pizza. Hear their argument on News. Twelve's youtube page. That's all our time. I'm Mark Sudal. Thanks for watching.

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Gretchen Raffa, of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, and Chris Healy, of the Connecticut Catholic Conference, join the show.

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