The Shtreimel Steals the Show

Before we get to the main event, the 2025 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, let’s start with Shabbos that lead into it.

Friday night, I found myself at Washington’s Chabad-Lubavitch shul, situated conveniently — providentially, if anything — directly across the street from the Washington Hilton, where the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner is traditionally held. Rabbi Eli Shemtov and his wife graciously added me and my dinner guests to their Young Jewish Professionals Shabbos meal, a gathering of Washington’s best and brightest, with a list even more exclusive than the VIP list for the WHCA dinner. From college students to senior White House officials, lawyers, journalists, and yes, even a few gentlemen claiming to follow in their “family tradition manufacturing corks for wine bottles” (a clever euphemism that turned out to mean “active military personnel who don’t feel comfortable introducing themselves thusly”).

During the meal, each of the 70 participants stood up to give an introduction and share a highlight from their week. Highlights ranged from tasks completed, to meetings arranged, classes aced, and anti-Semites outwitted. My personal highlight? Finishing a landscaping project with my 11-year-old son [applaud here]. My highlight from the dinner itself was bumping into Avi Furman (shout-out!), one of my campers at Camp Machane Yehuda, whom I hadn’t seen in 2.5 decades.

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the shul’s senior rabbi, was away that evening running a college campus program, leaving Rabbi Eli to oversee the proceedings. By Shabbos morning, Rabbi Levi was back at the helm.