It didn’t take long for President-Elect Barack Obama and his team to make their first mistakes. During his much anticipated introductory news conference, Mr. Obama joked that he spoke with most of the living president—but didn’t pull a Nancy Reagan. He tried and failed to be funny in recalling how Mrs. Reagan reportedly held séances in the White House in the early 1980s. He later called and, appropriately, apologized to the former First Lady.

The next gaff came from the father Mr. Obama’s newly minted Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel. Dr. Benjamin Emanuel, Rahm’s Israeli-born father, last week told the Ma’ariv daily, “Obviously he’ll influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn’t he? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to be mopping floors at the White House.”

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee called the remarks “an unacceptable smear.”

The son then the father apologized to the group for the disparaging comments.

“From the fullness of my heart, I personally apologize on behalf of my family and me,” Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), said in a telephone call Thursday to Mary Rose Oakar, the president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. “These are not the values upon which I was raised or those of my family.”

According the JTA Wire Service, a spokeswoman for Rahm Emanuel said the Illinois congressman offered to meet with representatives of the Arab-American community “at an appropriate time in the future.”

I’m sure many more mistakes are to come. As Jews, we are quick to point out when others blow it. It’s critical that we are equally diligent about righting our own wrongs as well.