On a muggy evening last August, Rabbi Efrem Goldberg walked into a kosher restaurant in Boca Raton, Fla., only to spot White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew having dinner at a corner table. Goldberg approached Lew, who was in town for a series of events for President Obama’s re-election campaign, and asked him to meet with a group of teenagers from his Orthodox synagogue.

Lew agreed. But in the meeting the next morning, he spoke about neither the president’s policies nor the upcoming elections. Rather, Lew chose to focus on how observant Jews — like the teenagers and himself — can easily take up public service without giving up their beliefs, without having to compromise.