{"id":3282,"date":"2017-10-23T08:53:51","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T12:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=3282"},"modified":"2017-10-23T08:57:29","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T12:57:29","slug":"robert-barr-rabbi-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2017\/10\/robert-barr-rabbi-congress.html","title":{"rendered":"Robert Barr Could Be the First Rabbi in Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Congress\"<\/a>Robert Barr, an ordained rabbi of Judaism\u2019s Reform tradition, is running for Congress. If Barr is elected, he will be the first rabbi to ever serve in Congress. If elected to the US House of Representatives, Barr hopes to bring people together. \u201cPolitics has been used to divide our nation,\u201d said Barr. \u201cBut we can use it to unite, heal and restore our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barr is running against Republican Steve Chabot in Ohio\u2019s First Congressional District. Chabot has served as the district\u2019s representative for 20 years. As Barr comes from outside the system, Barr feels he can bring a commitment to service and community to Congress that seems to have been lost. \u201cI never thought Congress could be so broken,\u201d said Barr.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Robert Barr is the founding rabbi of both OurJewishCommunity.org, one of the largest online Jewish congregations, and Congregation Beth Adam. He served on the boards of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, Jewish Family Services and on the Ohio Advisory Board of People for the American Way. Barr feels that his experience as a rabbi will serve him well in Congress. \u201cI\u2019ve served in this community and know it well,\u201d said Barr. \u201cMy work is helping people through tough times. Whenever I see problems, I bring people together to find solutions that work. And we need that now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barr is not looking for a career in politics. If elected, he plans to push to end gerrymandering and reform campaign financing, after which he may return to his current roles. Barr frequently presents on ethics to university students, medical residents and the Cincinnati Bar Association. He also lectures on theology, religion and culture as part of the continuing education program at the University of Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

While Barr could be the first rabbi to serve in Congress, he is not the first rabbi to make a bid for a congressional seat. The television rabbi Shmuley Boteach ran in his New Jersey district in 2012 and, before that, Dennis Shulman ran for a New Jersey seat in 2008. Both Boteach and Shulman lost their campaigns for Congress, but Barr has a fighting chance. His opponent, Steve Chabot, lost to a Democrat in 2008 before reclaiming his seat in 2010.<\/p>\n

Barr claims his Congressional bid is coming from the same \u201ccommitment to service, problem solving and community\u201d that drove him to become a rabbi nearly 40 years ago. Barr had considered seeking office before but had not felt pushed to act until recently. \u201cIn the last election,\u201d said Barr, \u201cI was more and more disturbed by the divisiveness. I felt I had a responsibility to do something about it\u2026I have a responsibility to run now.\u201d If elected, Barr plans to improve schools and ensure every community has clean air and water in an effort to give every Ohio family a chance at success.<\/p>\n

Barr feels his skills as a rabbi will transfer over to politics in ways that will allow him to achieve his goals during his time in office. \u201cPart of the job of both clergy and political leaders is to be able to have a vision and articulate that vision,\u201d said Barr. In addition to his already planned reforms, Barr is looking to bring people together. \u201cMy responsibility is to be there, listen\u2026and work to help to create a solution,\u201d said Barr, despite working in \u201ca culture in which people are no longer able to talk and listen to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though Barr appears to have a decent chance at reaching the House of Representatives, he still faces an uphill climb. Sam Ronan and Dr. Laura Ann Weaver are both competing with him for the Democratic nomination and the Republican incumbent, Steve Chabot, has only lost his seat once in 20 years of service.<\/p>\n

Barr, however, is not intimidated by the odds. \u201cI love to talk,\u201d Barr said. \u201cI\u2019m willing to talk to every voter in the district, and\u2026those who may not have thought of voting for me will decide I\u2019m the one they can trust.\u201d Whether Barr will achieve his prediction of support remains to be seen, but his congressional bid could keep him in the spotlight until 2020 or beyond.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stephanie Hertzenberg<\/strong> is a graduate of the College of William and Mary where she received her degree in Religious Studies and Creative Writing. She currently works as a freelance writer from her home in Virginia\u2019s Shenandoah Valley.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Barr, an ordained rabbi of Judaism\u2019s Reform tradition, is running for Congress. If Barr is elected, he will be the first rabbi to ever serve in Congress. If elected to the US House of Representatives, Barr hopes to bring people together. \u201cPolitics has been used to divide our nation,\u201d said Barr. \u201cBut we can…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[749,747,748,752,750,746,751],"class_list":["post-3282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiring-messages","category-inspiring-people","tag-congress","tag-jewish","tag-judaism-reform-tradition","tag-ohio","tag-rabbi","tag-robert-barr","tag-us-house-of-representatives"],"yoast_head":"\nRobert Barr Could Be the First Rabbi in Congress<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Robert Barr Could Be the First Rabbi in Congress\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Robert Barr, an ordained rabbi of Judaism\u2019s Reform tradition, is running for Congress. If Barr is elected, he will be the first rabbi to ever serve in Congress. If elected to the US House of Representatives, Barr hopes to bring people together.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2017\/10\/robert-barr-rabbi-congress.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-23T12:53:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-10-23T12:57:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beliefnet Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/files\/2017\/10\/Congress-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Robert Barr Could Be the First Rabbi in Congress","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Robert Barr Could Be the First Rabbi in Congress","og_description":"Robert Barr, an ordained rabbi of Judaism\u2019s Reform tradition, is running for Congress. If Barr is elected, he will be the first rabbi to ever serve in Congress. If elected to the US House of Representatives, Barr hopes to bring people together.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2017\/10\/robert-barr-rabbi-congress.html","og_site_name":"Inspiration Report","article_published_time":"2017-10-23T12:53:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-10-23T12:57:29+00:00","author":"Beliefnet Staff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/files\/2017\/10\/Congress-300x225.jpg","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2017\/10\/robert-barr-rabbi-congress.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2017\/10\/robert-barr-rabbi-congress.html","name":"Robert Barr Could Be the First Rabbi in Congress","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2017\/10\/robert-barr-rabbi-congress.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2017\/10\/robert-barr-rabbi-congress.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/files\/2017\/10\/Congress-300x225.jpg","datePublished":"2017-10-23T12:53:51+00:00","dateModified":"2017-10-23T12:57:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/aea408b5be59bf6e05556b03859b6b79"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2017\/10\/robert-barr-rabbi-congress.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2017\/10\/robert-barr-rabbi-congress.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2017\/10\/robert-barr-rabbi-congress.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/files\/2017\/10\/Congress-300x225.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/files\/2017\/10\/Congress-300x225.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2017\/10\/robert-barr-rabbi-congress.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Robert Barr Could Be the First Rabbi in Congress"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/","name":"Inspiration Report","description":"Inspiration News, Life Advice and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/aea408b5be59bf6e05556b03859b6b79","name":"Beliefnet Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6f7\/6f77b66a3e683e8aeba5be93e4ae3e04x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6f7\/6f77b66a3e683e8aeba5be93e4ae3e04x96.jpg","caption":"Beliefnet Staff"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/author\/skirk"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3282"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3289,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3282\/revisions\/3289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}