Drawing ©1989, 2007 Scott Rosenberg. Please click to enlarge. The caption reads:
Washington, D.C., 1992 "…and this is my brother, Mendel – he's in charge of our Department of Defense. This is his brother-in-law, Mendel, our Chief of Staff; this one over here is [his] brother-in-law's nephew (my wife's third cousin, four times removed on her father's side), Mendel – he's our Ambassador to the Soviet Union, and this one … MENDEL!!! I've told you a thousand times, DON'T CALL NEW YORK ON THE RED PHONE!!! It's for EMERGENCIES!!! … he's my youngest son …"
In 1989 I wondered what would happen if the fundamentalist Jewish right – AKA, Chabad and the haredim – ever got enough political power to elect one of their own as president. One thing was sure, I thought – nepotism will rule. So I drew the above cartoon as part of a series intended for a Jewish newspaper. It was never published because the editor did not know enough about the haredi world (or Chabad naming practices) to get the joke. And, of course, there was the little matter of offending his friend the Chabad shaliach.
Okay, let the name calling begin …