The People's
Politicians
Book Fair author
explores how pop
culture influences
presidents.
Tevi Troy with President George W.
Bush in the White House
r
Jacob Kamaras
JNS.org
y
ehuda Avner's 2010 book,
The Prime Ministers, reveals a
tradition of voracious readers
among Israel's leaders, whose homes
were lined with books in multiple
languages. While those homes remind
Tevi Troy of the residences of America's
Founding Fathers, Troy's new book,
What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and
Obama Tweeted: 200 Years of
Popular Culture in the
White House (Regnery
History), begins with
President Barack
Obama's reference to
the cast of the Jersey
Shore reality TV show
during the congressional
battle over health care.
Troy, 46, is a last-
minute addition to this
year's Jewish Book Fair. The deputy
secretary of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services under
President George W. Bush, for whom
he also served as Jewish community
liaison, will reveal the way in which
popular culture has influenced presi-
dents — from Lincoln's love of theater
to Obama's favorite TV show, The Wire
— at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 10, at the JCC
in West Bloomfield.
Troy believes current Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu's reading habits fall
in line with the scholarly group of early
Israeli leaders depicted by Avner. But in
What Jefferson Read, he chronicles the
opposite trend developing in the U.S.
Israel's youth as a nation when com-
pared to the U.S. likely accounts for this
discrepancy, he says in an interview
with JNS.org.
"Maybe there's something about the
original founding generation, that in order
to establish a state or know what makes
a good government, you need as a reader
to be steeped in these great questions that
man has debated for centuries. Whereas
when you're a caretaker leader, perhaps
you don't need to read as carefully"
Troy's book lays out a historical tra-
jectory in which the increasing preva-
lence of pop culture in American soci-
ety has meant that U.S. presidents must
be in tune with that culture in order to
both get elected and then be "men of
the people" while in office.
What presidents may sacrifice in the
process of immersing themselves in
pop culture, however, is their ability to
be scholars and "men of higher under-
standing:' Troy writes.
What does that trend mean for
American Jews?
Troy says that pop culture is dispro-
portionately shaped by Jewish voices, so
if a president needs to be aware of the
culture, the president is
"clearly aware" of Jewish
influences on culture as well.
Troy chronicles a long his-
tory of American presidents
welcoming Jewish artists
to the White House and
also brings to light vari-
ous unique factoids about
how U.S. presidents relat-
ed to Jews. John Quincy
Adams, for example,
after his presidency began working on
but never completed a written history
of the Jewish people.
How can modern presidents more
effectively mold their images?
Troy offers his formula in "Rules for
Presidents Engaging Pop Culture" in
his book's appendix. He says the book
is recommended reading for future
presidents and their campaign staffs,
who "need to look at [pop culture] seri-
ously, and have a plan and a strategy for
approaching it:'
The same goes for Jewish organiza-
tions and leaders, Troy says.
"I think the new generation of Jewish
leaders needs to adapt to new technolo-
gies, just like political leaders need to
take these technologies into account:'
What lesson can the Jewish commu-
nity as a whole glean from Troy's book?
"I think Jews should be appreciative
of the home we found in America and
the welcoming nature of the American
community, and also of the role the
presidents have played in this process"
he says. "But I also think that they need
to, when they are in the entertainment
world, take their role seriously and think
about what messages they are conveying
about the Jewish community"
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Tevi Troy speaks at 4 p.m. Sunday,
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