ASHVILLE - Thanking God and Al Gore, an emotional Senator Joseph I. Lieberman yesterday accepted Gore's offer to be his running mate, beaming with pride at the ''miraculous day'' that made him the first Jewish candidate for the vice presidency.
''Dear Lord, maker of all miracles, I thank you for bringing me to this extraordinary moment in my life. And Al Gore, I thank you for making this miracle possible for me and breaking this barrier for the rest of America forever,'' Lieberman told a crowd of several hundred who gathered in the sweltering Southern heat to watch the announcement.
The 58-year-old Connecticut senator praised Vice President Gore for his ''bold step,'' saying the selection said more about Gore than it did about himself.
''I cannot express with words the gratitude I feel today as the first Jewish American to be a major party candidate for the vice presidency,'' said Lieberman, surrounded by his wife, Hadassah, the vice president and Mrs. Gore, and other members of the two families.
''There are some people who might call Al Gore's selection of me an act of chutzpah,'' Lieberman quipped.
Gore compared Lieberman's selection to the candidacy of President John F. Kennedy, who 40 years ago became the first Catholic to win the presidency. Kennedy was nominated at his party's convention in Los Angeles, where Democrats will meet next week to nominate Gore and Lieberman.
''We voted with our hearts to make history by tearing down an old wall of division, and when we nominate Joe Lieberman for vice president, we will make history again,'' Gore said, eliciting an enthusiastic cheer from the crowd. ''We will tear down an old wall of division once again.''
If the Republican National Convention earlier this month drew on the traditionally Democratic themes of inclusion and diversity, yesterday's announcement borrowed the common Republican themes of faith and family.
Lieberman, the first Democratic senator to criticize President Clinton publicly for his behavior in the Lewinsky scandal, is expected to help counter the Republicans' character assault on the Democrats and help Gore separate himself from Clinton on the issue.
Lieberman repeatedly referred to God, to his and Gore's personal faith, and to the family he said helped propel him to yesterday's moment in history.
Gore ''has never wavered in his responsibilities as a father, as a husband, and as a servant to God Almighty,'' said Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew.
Lieberman, a centrist second-term senator, has more conservative views than Gore on some issues, prompting Republicans to remark that Lieberman was actually closer to their nominee, George W. Bush, in his thinking than he was to that of his own running mate.
But opponents, Lieberman insisted, are just trying to ''blur the differences'' between the tickets. ''They even responded to the news that Al Gore picked me by saying that George Bush and I think alike,'' Lieberman told the crowd.
''With all due respect, I think that's like saying that the veterinarian and the taxidermist are in the same business, because either way you get your dog back,'' Lieberman said.
The joke, which is one Gore himself has used on more than one occasion, drew a big laugh from the crowd, and from Gore.
The two men are embarking on a busy, pre-convention tour that will take them from Gore's hometown of Carthage, Tenn., to Lieberman's home state of Connecticut and then to Atlanta. Gore will then head to Philadelphia, Springfield, Pa., Cleveland, Independence, Mo., and Michigan. Lieberman will campaign with Gore at least through tomorrow.
It is not yet clear how Lieberman's campaign schedule will be limited by his religious practice, which forbids him from working on Saturdays in most circumstances.
News of Lieberman's selection was followed by a leap in the polls for the Democratic ticket. Lagging by as much as 19 points in opinion polls after the Republican National Convention July 31 to Aug. 3, Gore was just 2 points behind Bush in a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll released yesterday.
The survey, taken Monday night, showed Bush leading Gore 45 percent to 43 percent. The same polling group had Bush well ahead Aug. 5, with 54 percent of the vote against Gore's 35 percent.
An overnight ABC poll showed that 60 percent of voters approved of Gore's choice for vice president, although two-thirds said they didn't know enough about Lieberman to make a judgment.
Half of those polled said his religious faith makes him more appealing, but 29 percent also worried how Lieberman might try to influence US policy toward Israel.
Gore spokesman Chris Lehane was heartened by the jump in the polls, but noted they were just a ''snapshot'' of public opinion.
''Clearly, what the polls show is that the choice of Joe Lieberman is a grand slam,'' Lehane said. But ''there is a degree of elasticity in the electorate right now. Polls will continue to bounce around.''
Lieberman's standing as an early and forceful Clinton critic appeared to win points for the Democratic ticket. When told of Lieberman's blistering comments about Clinton's affair with Monica S. Lewinsky, 72 percent of those polled by ABC said they thought more highly of the senator.
Gore drew on that public relations strength in introducing his vice presidential pick to the crowd, lauding Lieberman for his character and faith.
''Joe and I come from different regions and different religious faiths, but we believe in a common set of ideals, and we both believe with our whole resolve that, as Americans, we must make real the great ideal that we are one country with a common destiny,'' Gore said.
But it was Hadassah Lieberman, the senator's wife, whose moment in the blazing sun moved many in attendance. She was introduced by Tipper Gore, who noted that the two women had graduated from Boston University in the same class, though they did not know each other then.
''I want you to know something about her,'' said Mrs. Gore. ''Her mother is a survivor of Auschwitz and Dachau. Her father was in Nazi labor camps and organized an escape of Jewish men. And after the war was over, he helped organize and nurture Jewish orphans.''
When Hadassah was 3, her parents escaped from Stalinist repression in what was then Czechoslovakia and immigrated to America.
With obvious emotion, Hadassah Lieberman noted that she was standing in the midst of a plaza commemorating World War II, among other wars.
''And here I am, the daughter of survivors from the Holocaust, the most horrendous thing that happened, and here I am in the place that commemorates the American heroes, the soldiers who actually liberated my mother in Dachau and in Auschwitz,'' she said.
Reaching out to America's newest citizens, Mrs. Lieberman said, ''Whether you and your family emigrated from Europe, Africa, Mexico, Latin America, or Asia, I am standing here for you! This country is our country!
''This land is your land,'' a smiling Mrs. Lieberman said to loud cheers and applause. ''And anything is possible for us.''
