As the former head of Seagram and a billionaire philanthropist who has spent much of his fortune battling anti-Semitism worldwide, you have just written a book, “Hope, Not Fear,” that argues for a kind of neo-Judaism that loosens up the rules of observance, welcomes converts and has nothing to do with synagogue. I don’t know that I would call it neo-Judaism. The Jewish part will remain, but it’s our attitude that has to change. Instead of shunning people who marry out, we need to welcome them. I think that if we want to grow Judaism, we have to accept interfaith marriage for what it is.
Do you think you favor inclusiveness because you yourself have seven children — and their spouses of various faiths — from how many marriages? Two.
I thought it was more. Well, I’ve had three wives. I’ve had five weddings.
In your book, you seek to define Judaism as something besides religious belief. I don’t believe in the God of the Old Testament, but I am happy with my Judaism, without that.
If you take the spiritual element out of Judaism, what is left? Some would say the rest is just archaeology, bones in the desert. That’s their problem; that’s not my problem. What we have left is our ethics, our morals. It was our people who developed the Ten Commandments, and civilizations all over the world are based on the Ten Commandments. Whoever wrote that — and we assume it was Moses — had a great deal of wisdom.
But every religion has an ethical system. Well, they do now. But we were the first.
Why is it important to you that Judaism continues? There are things we have to do. For instance, Darfur, Cambodia, Rwanda. There have been holocausts since our Holocaust. We should be the first people to stand up and say this is unacceptable, but we don’t. We say, “Never again,” just for us. We have to say, No, it’s for everyone, this “Never again.”
Are you a Democrat? That depends on who the Republican candidate is. I’m a Democrat now. I’d vote for Mickey Mouse before I voted for John McCain and Sarah Palin.
Why do you give your money to Jewish causes instead of broader social causes? There are not that many of us in the Jewish world who understand that we are in crisis. We are not in crisis because of anti-Semitism; we are in crisis because we are disappearing through assimilation.
How do you know that anti-Semitism is no longer a threat? I think the greatest evidence of that is when Al Gore lost but didn’t lose the election in 2000, nobody blamed it on Joe Lieberman because Joe was a Jew. Nobody. I never heard that.
As a kid growing up in Montreal in the ’30s and ’40s, were you observant? No. When I was supposed to go to synagogue on Saturdays, my father went to the office. What made him think I was going to go to synagogue if he went to the office? The hell with that.
I see that Forbes magazine just listed you as the 105th-wealthiest person in this country, with an estimated worth of $3.5 billion. Is that right? I don’t look, and I don’t comment.
But is that figure correct? I haven’t added it up.
Did you lose a lot of money in the Wall Street meltdown last month? I don’t know. I don’t watch it on a day-to-day basis.
Do you get upset when you lose large sums of money overnight? I get over it very quickly.
You don’t get ulcers? My father put it right when he said: I don’t get ulcers. I give ulcers.
At 79, do you drink whiskey or other Seagram products? Once a week. Friday, before dinner. I like Chivas Regal.
What are you praying for in 5769, the year that just began on the Jewish calendar? To be able to keep doing what I’m doing! At my advanced age, I think that’s enough.
INTERVIEW CONDUCTED, CONDENSED AND EDITED BY DEBORAH SOLOMON
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
