Worcester rabbi remembers brief encounter with President Jimmy Carter

More than 40 years ago, Worcester Rabbi Mendel Fogelman had a brief meeting with President Jimmy Carter.

Fogelman, leader of the Central Massachusetts Chabad in Worcester, was in his early 20s when he met Carter in 1977 at a hotel in Boxborough.

“I remember Carter saying, ‘It’s nice to meet you, Mendel,'” Fogelman said Monday.

The meeting with the former president was recalled after Carter's family announced Saturday that the oldest living president in U.S. history, at 98, is spending his final days in hospice care at his Georgia home.

The 1977 meeting was short, lasting long enough to shake hands and exchange pleasantries, and it was arranged by Joseph D. Early Sr., the late Worcester congressman.

As Fogelman tells it, Early was friendly with Fogelman’s father, the late Rabbi Hershel Fogelman, a prominent Lubavitch leader in Worcester who died in 2013 at 91.

Early told Carter that he had to meet Hershel Fogelman, and it was arranged. The meeting happened in a hallway outside the hotel dining room where Early and Carter broke bread.

“(Carter) wished us well, we wished him well. It was pleasing meeting him,” said Fogelman.

A photo captured the moment: A smiling Carter shaking hands with Hershel Fogelman, with a smiling Mendel Fogelman standing next to his father. Although the younger Fogelman does not remember the date of the brief meeting, it likely occurred about the same time Carter was in the region for a town hall-style meeting in Clinton.

Not fans of Carter's presidency

But while Fogelman said he and his late father are fans of government, they’re not fans of Carter’s presidency.

“He’s no friend of Israel,” Fogelman said, citing the Camp David Accords signed in 1978 by Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin that established a peace treaty between the two countries.

Fogelman explained that before the treaty, Israel didn’t pay for its oil because it controlled the resource. But because Israel had to relinquish the entire Sinai Peninsula as part of the peace deal including oil fields, the days of Israel's free oil were over.

As for Carter’s legacy, which includes the Carter Center that promotes democracy worldwide and a decades-long association with Habitat for Humanity, Fogelman mentioned rampant inflation during Carter’s one-term presidency from 1977-1981.

But Fogelman also remembers a “nice meeting” with Carter in the hotel lobby.

“We respected (Carter). He’s president and we have great respect for the president,” said Fogelman.

Contact Henry Schwan at henry.schwan@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @henrytelegram

More:Presidents Day in Worcester: These sitting presidents visited the city

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: President Jimmy Cater is remembered by a Worcester rabbi