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Clinton Advisers Considered Using Jewish Law as Defense of Lewinsky Affair

"We have to ask how Jews can condemn president Clinton’s behavior as immoral, when we exalt King David?"

October 13, 2014

A release of documents from the Clinton presidential library includes a 1999 email advising the administration to use one interpretation of Jewish law to defend President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.

The email from Susannah Heschel, which was forwarded to Hillary Clinton by her domestic adviser Ruby Shamir, argued that the President had not committed "adultery," according to the Jerusalem Post.

An email from January 27, 1999, one of some 10,000 documents released Friday, and first reported on by The New York Post Saturday, was sent by a senior aide to then-first lady Hillary Clinton, and said that "According to classical Jewish law, president [Bill] Clinton did not commit adultery; adultery is defined as a married man having intercourse with a married woman, and Monica Lewinsky is single."

"At worst, President Clinton is guilty of the common sin of onanism [masturbation], a sin that probably afflicts the consciences of most Jewish men at one time or another," it said.

The email went on to compare Bill Clinton to King David.

"From the perspective of Jewish history, we have to ask how Jews can condemn president Clinton’s behavior as immoral, when we exalt King David?" Susannah Heschel said. "King David had Batsheva’s husband, Uriah, murdered.

While David was condemned and punished, he was never thrown off the throne of Israel. On the contrary, he is exalted in our Jewish memory as the unifier of Israel."