Opening the Doors of Wonder: Reflections on Religious Rites of Passage

6 · THE WAL-MART-IZATION OF THE CHURCH

6 · Jim Zogby 8 1 THE WAL-MART-IZATION OF THE CHURCH Jim Zogby likes his cigars, one after another after another. And his coffee black. And the service quick and familiar, because the staff knows his likes and dislikes without him having to more than nod or gesture. And all this at Zogby’s version of a men’s club: the Library Lounge at the St. Regis Hotel, a power room if ever there was one— two blocks north of the White House, smack on K Street, Washington ’s Boulevard of Lobbyists. Calvin Coolidge cut the ceremonial ribbon at the hotel’s grand opening in 1926. Ever since, no American president has failed to visit the place, and a pride of kings and prime ministers have stayed there. The St. Regis likes to describe the atmosphere in Zogby’s favored Library Lounge as “casual sophisticated.” For once, the PR people are right on target. “Casual” and “sophisticated” apply to Zogby as well. He blends right into his usual corner of the Lounge: sinking into the wingback chair at a small table, leather-bound books on the shelves behind him, white button-down shirt framed by a brown V-neck sweater, gold wire-rimmed glasses perched on his aquiline nose. He looks so right sitting here that the hotel could have hired him to beef up the atmosphere, sort of a rent-a-guy. Actually, the Lounge is where Zogby holds court when not in his real office: the Arab American Institute, housed on the sixth floor of a building across the street. Zogby founded the AAI in 1985, intending it to be the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community. Since then, it has been active in voter registration, education, and mobilization , all aimed at moving Arab Americans into the U.S. political mainstream. The job is perfect for Zogby: he’s always been a political animal. In college, he was active in the civil rights and antiwar movements. Not long after graduating, he founded the Palestine Human Rights Committee, a group whose title’s first three words rankled more than a few people in the United States. Next came his involvement with a raft of big-name organizations, all Arab or Middle East oriented: executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee ; cofounder of Save Lebanon, Inc.; and copresident of Builders for Peace, a private sector group that promoted U.S. business investment in the West Bank and Gaza after the signing of the 1993 IsraeliPalestinian peace accords. He also taught at several universities, advised Al Gore during his 2000 presidential campaign, and analyzed data for Zogby International, the high-profile public opinion polling company run by his brother, John. All this prompts many people to say, “Where’s he get all the energy?” Zogby’s breathless career—nay, his breathless life—started in Utica, a small city in upstate New York with a long tradition of hospitality toward refugees and immigrants. Zogby’s father, Joseph, emigrated from Lebanon when he was twenty-five. Eventually, he ran a grocery and, in 1926, proposed marriage to Cecilia Ann Zogby. (The two were not related: “Zogby” is a fairly common name in Lebanon.) Only nineteen, Cecilia turned him down. She wasn’t ready for marriage . First an education. Then—maybe—marriage. She graduated from college, helped put her brother through law school, and when Joseph proposed again—she was now thirty-eight—she accepted. Zogby’s father died when Jim was fifteen; he attributes his sense of history, ethnic pride, and social justice to his mother, who spoke three languages, liberally sprinkled her conversations with colorful Arabic proverbs (always preceded with “As my mother always would say . . .”), and, while devoutly Catholic, was never parochial. She made certain her children weren’t, either. Born in a Pennsylvania coal mining town, Cecilia never forgot her 8 2 CHRISTIANITY Lebanese roots. In 1927 she wrote a newspaper article encouraging Arab Americans to embrace their heritage, believing that they should not be ashamed to learn Arabic or be seen in the company of other Arab Americans. She admonished, “How . . . can we ever aspire to win the admiration and esteem of our American friends if we do not respect ourselves?” Cecilia Zogby also respected her faith. Her children attended two churches: the local Roman Catholic church, St. Agnes, and the local Maronite Catholic church, St. Louis Gonzaga...