Political Insider: Why is Obama So Worried About the Jews?

Why is Sen. Barack Obama devoting so much time and energy trying to win over Jewish voters?

On the surface,  the numbers don't add up.  A majority of Jews are going to vote Democratic in November's presidential contest no matter what; does the difference between 61 percent (what Obama scored in a recent Gallup poll) and 74 percent (what John Kerry actually won in 2004) really make that much of a difference?

The word "Florida" quickly comes to mind; the conventional wisdom holds that Florida could once again be decisive, with that state's relatively large Jewish population playing an important role.

But "relatively" is a…well, relative term. There are a lot of Jews in Florida, but they still only comprise about 4 or 5 percent of the total population, although they are a higher percentage of those who actually vote.  And a majority will probably remain in the Democratic column; the only question is how big a majority.

Jewish voters are important  in a number of other "battleground" states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois, but the numbers are even smaller and it's hard to imagine how their voting can swing the election unless the margin in November is razor thin.

So why is making nice to the Jews so important to Obama? 

First is the nature of the attacks against him within the Jewish community: that he is a secret Muslim, that he consorts with anti-Israel forces, that he would appease Israel's enemies and make nice to Hamas - charges that go far beyond anything he has said and that stand in contradiction to his stated views.

"He is absolutely obligated to counter those attacks," said Kean University political scientist Gilbert Kahn.  "You can't allow them to go unanswered. There is a lot of anti-Obama feeling in the Jewish community, not just from the Orthodox, and he has to respond to it; he can't afford not to."

Secondly, Jewish campaign giving remains critical to the Democrats and increasingly important to the Republicans.  This year's primaries set spending records, and the general election will make that look like chump change.  Obama can't afford any drop off in giving to the Dems - or to see money shift to the McCain campaign.

And while Jewish voters' decisions are shaped by a broad spectrum of issues, domestic and foreign, Jewish giving tends to be dominated by pro-Israel interests.

Obama also needs to unite a Democratic party badly divided by the brutal, extended primary fight with Sen. Hillary Clinton. Holding the Democratic coalition together in the face of deep political, factional and racial divisions will be hard. 

The Jewish community, traditionally a key element in that coalition, will be a bellwether; if he can't keep the Jews on board in something approximating their traditional presence in the party, he could have a hard time keeping the Democratic coalition from unraveling.

Finally, there's probably a personal element to his emphasis on making nice with the Jews.

Obama's political persona was shaped in large measure by the peculiar politics of Democratic Chicago, where black-Jewish coalitions play a key role.  His meteoric political career has been propelled, to a degree, by his close relations with Chicago's big and politically active Jewish community. 

Maintaining that relationship as he moves onto the national stage is probably personally important to him, as well as politically critical.

In Chicago, his ability to work closely with the Jewish community was a given; it must have come as a rude shock when he found out that things work a little differently on the national level, where miniscule nuances on Mideast questions can spell big trouble.

PermaLink

This Jewish Life:  The Future

I know where I am going to be until I am 25 years old. 

Last week, I accepted a two-year position at RAC, working full-time on Judicial Nominations-helping the Jewish community and, eventually, the progressive religious community become educated about and more involved with the process.  It will begin a week after my year as a Legislative Assistant is finished. 

I am quite excited about it.  The opportunity to work on Judicial Nominations at the beginning of a new Administration seems impossible to turn down.  And the chance to stay at the RAC for a while longer is incredibly appealing.

And selfishly, I am pleased that I finally have an answer to the seemingly-constant question that I get from friends, family, co-workers, and strangers, "So, what's next in your life?"  Of course, I have learned that having an answer to this question simply prompts people to say, "And then what do you plan to do after that?"  So frustrating.  But, at least I have the first part down.

It's exciting, but it's also a bit overwhelming.  Sometime I can't believe that I have committed myself to something that will not be over until I am 25.  I still feel young enough that 25 should be light years away.  But it's not.  It's only two years from now. 

It's hard for me not to get ahead of myself.    My year as a Legislative Assistant doesn't end until August 8th, but recently, I've been thinking about how my fellow LA's will be leaving soon. 

And, I have been thinking about my new job.  And turning 25.  And wondering what I want to accomplish before I turn 30-because I will only have five years post-RAC to accomplish those goals.  So, all of a sudden, in my head, 30 is just around the corner.

I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes, from Ignazio Silone's Bread and Wine:  "Sometimes I am haunted by the thought that we have only one life and that we live it provisionally, waiting in vain for the day when real life will begin.  And so life passes by.  I assure you that of all the people I know not one lives in the present." 

I think I need to remind myself more often not to let life pass by.  I have decided that working at the RAC and living in DC are fulfilling enough to warrant my hanging around for a while.  So,

I should be taking full advantage of the experiences that I am having here, instead of focusing incessantly on what is coming next. 

But, it's easier said than done… 

PermaLink

A Rabbi's World: Can You Get There from Here? A Jerusalem Story

As I write this blog, President Bush is making his way to Jerusalem (where I am), to participate in Israeli President Shimon Peres' "Conference on Tomorrow."  The conference itself is quite amazing.  Just this afternoon, Tony Blair chaired a session on visions of the future with Mikhail Gorbachev and some nineteen other heads of state in attendance (all in celebration of Israel's 60th!).  It was heady stuff!  And tomorrow, out of the blue of the western sky (let's see who gets that reference!), comes our own President to join the festivities.  As they would say in Hebrew, yihiyeh po sameah!  It'll be a little loony around here.

Truth to tell, the lunacy has already begun, if only on a practical level.  While here, I'm staying with my son and daughter-in-law who are living for the year in Rehavia, in the center of town.  In their mailbox yesterday was an 8x10 glossy multi-colored sheet detailing all the street closures (and other sundry inconveniences) that the Secret Service is demanding in order to insure the President's safety. And there are already more people wearing the same lapel pin talking into the palms of their hands than you can shake a stick at.  But of course you wouldn't want to shake a stick at these guys; they have no sense of humor.

Basically, they are shutting down downtown Jerusalem.  Not only is the street where the President is staying closed to traffic (King David), but all access roads leading to it, as well as all roads that might conceivably lead to it, are as well.  Additionally, there will be intermittent closures of all the other major arteries (whatever's left!) as both he and his entourage and the other heads of state are shuttled back and forth from the convention center where the conference is being held.

If your car is anywhere near any of these locations, it will be towed.  All of downtown Jerusalem has been warned to "park elsewhere" for the next few days.  You have to know Jerusalem well to appreciate exactly how funny that is.  Parking in Jerusalem makes parking in Manhattan seem like a picnic.  Just "park elsewhere."  Right.

On top of that, almost all of the rental car offices in downtown Jerusalem are across the street from the King David Hotel (where you-know- who is staying).   So if you have to rent a car (which of course I have to do), they are moving their offices and cars to a remote location far away from the center of town (which you won't be able to get to anyway because no taxi will be able to take you there because the streets will all be closed!

Now I'm from New York, and I'm used to street closures.  In fact, former President Clinton visited my synagogue while he was in office, and people are still complaining.  But most of the Jerusalemites I've spoke to would just as soon have President Bush spend the week of sheva brahot for his daughter Jenna in Texas, and leave poor old Jerusalem alone with its regular insufferable traffic.

As an honorary Citizen of Jerusalem for the week of this conference, I must admit to feeling the same way…

PermaLink

Political Insider: Barack Obama at Israel's 60th Gala

For two days, the Jewish rumor mill in Washington buzzed with talk that Sen. Barack Obama, whose bid for the Democratic presidential nomination now seems all but unstoppable, would show up at the gala Washington celebration marking Israel's 60th anniversary -- joining Vice President Dick Cheney, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a glittery cast of hundreds.

Sure enough, Obama attended the high-profile gathering and touched all the bases: praising Harry Truman for recognizing Israel, talking about "shared values and a shared history" and  bipartisanship, invoking the name of  Theodor Herzl.

Watch the video here:

PermaLink

PermaLink

Political Insider: New Poll: Good News for Obama, McCain -- Depending on Spin

Spin is everything in politics, which is why competing campaigns can take the same polling data and convincingly use it as proof their candidates are doing better than their opponents.

That was apparent on Wednesday when Gallup released a new snapshot of Jewish voters (read it here),  and both the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) and the Barack Obama campaign sent it out to reporters as if it was unambiguous good news for their side.

The new poll showed Obama doing "better than might be expected among Jewish voters," in the words of the pollsters.

But what, exactly, does that mean? Gallup says it means Obama is "trailing Hillary Clinton only slightly in Jewish Democrats' preferences for the Democratic nomination."

That's good news for the Democratic frontrunner because the assumption from the outset has been that Clinton - with her longstanding connections to the Jewish community, her New York base and her seven years in the Senate - would capture the lion's share of Jewish Democrats.

Perhaps more importantly for Obama, daily tracking polling "finds no recent decline in the percentage of Jewish Democrats favoring Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination," according to Gallup.

Coming after weeks of controversy over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the Chicago preacher who evokes images of Louis Farrakhan for many Jewish voters, that suggests Obama's "Jewish problem" may not be as deep as Republican spinmeisters claim.

Looking ahead to the general election, the Gallup data shows Obama getting 61 percent against McCain.  That's a solid majority, right?

But that 61 percent isn't particularly good by recent Democratic standards; Sen. John Kerry got 74 percent in 2004.

Thus the enthusiastic press release from the Republican Jewish Coalition.  The poll, the group said, is "another important indicator of the ongoing troubles Barack Obama has with Jewish voters."

The RJC, the release went on, "remains confident that John McCain will continue the trend of the GOP making inroads among Jewish voters."

Indeed, Jewish Republican voting seems on the upswing - unless you take a longer view.  Ronald Reagan won 39 percent of the Jewish vote in 1980, and George H. W. Bush snared 35 percent in 1988, before plunging to 11 percent in 1992.

In fact, the GOP average tally from Jewish voters in presidential contests in the 1970s and 1980s was 34 percent.  Viewed that way, the Republicans seem to be creeping back from some dismal lows in the 1990s and early 2000s.

So: McCain is doing better than recent Republican nominees with the Jews, Obama is doing better than many experts predicted with that same electorate. As usual, the polling data contains something for everybody - except, maybe, Hillary Clinton, whose problem now is mostly Democratic convention delegates, not folks surveyed by Gallup.

But there's only one poll that really counts, and we won't find out how that one goes until November 4.  And the results will be a lot harder to spin.

PermaLink

Political Insider: UJC Fights for Boost to Emergency Food and Shelter Program

Twenty five years ago, the federal government began a unique partnership with charitable groups to provide emergency food and housing for the nation's neediest.  That program - created in large measure because of the efforts of Mark Talisman, the former Washington director for the Council of Jewish Federations - today faces mounting pressures as the economy sours and more Americans sink into poverty.

So it was fitting that Talisman's successor - now under the banner of the United Jewish Communities (UJC) - is pressing hard to avert cuts to theEmergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) proposed by the Bush administration.

"With the current economic situation of the country, organizations are not only reaffirming their support for the program but looking for additional funding," said UJC's William Daroff. 

He said that while there are no "solid numbers" pointing to growing demand for emergency food and shelter services, "food pantries clearly have less food on the shelves than they've had in the past; they are seeing more people come through the doors for utility assistance and rent and mortgage assistance."

The program represents a partnership between the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and a group of prominent charities, including Catholic Charities, the Salvation Army, the National Council of Churches, the Red Cross, the United Way -- and UJC.

While money comes from the federal budget, decisions about where the money actually goes are made locally.  And every local board has a UJC or other Jewish presence.

Currently UJC is leading an effort to secure an additional $50 million to be included in the next homeland security appropriations bill, which counters a cut to the program included in President Bush's budget proposal.

But with Congress once again gridlocked when it comes to spending bills, it is far from clear whether the proposed increase will see the light of day.

This week UJC and the other organizations that work with the program were on Capitol Hill, marking EFSP's 25th year - and urging Congress to increase, not cut, funding for a program that is more critical than ever as the economic slowdown continues.

PermaLink

A Rabbi's World: Making Room for the Big Things

Though so many people go away for Pesach these days, we congregational rabbis tend to stay at home, for the most obvious reason.  Leaving for a holiday is not really in the job description of a pulpit rabbi, unless you have lots of clergy on staff to cover you.  So, with more that a little wistfulness, my wife and I watched a few weeks ago as many of our friends left for here and there- little cleaning, no shopping!!!- and we went about welcoming our children home and hosting both seders, as we have for many years, each for somewhere near twenty-five people.

I'm a pretty involved husband as house things go.  I do a lot of shopping, and some cooking.  But I have never quite been able to grasp exactly how my wife Robin pulls this Pesach thing off.   It's just such an overwhelming challenge to turn your house inside out and upside down, and somewhere in the midst of that, host two major (scripted) dinner parties on two consecutive nights that last until all hours.  I stand in awe.

This year, because of the first days of the holiday beginning on Saturday night, we- like all observant Jews- had to do most of our cooking for the first days of the holiday before Shabbat even started, and store all the food…. somewhere.     

I became convinced over those first few days of the holiday that our refrigerator(s) were among those miraculous things mentioned in the Mishnah that were created bein hash'mashot… at dusk.  I can think of no earthly reason why all the food we made should have fit into them, even using the freezers.  I was completely sure that we would never be able to store it all.  But it was then that my wife- from whom I've learned many, many more significant things than this over the past thirty-one years- shared with me the secret of refrigerator space.  "Move the little things," she said, "to make room for the big things." 

It's easier, she said, to find new places for the smaller items than for the bigger ones, so get the bigger ones in there, and the small ones we'll figure out.  Sounds obvious to you, you're saying.  Well, it might be, but it wasn't obvious to me.  If it weren't for her, I'd still be standing in front of an open refrigerator, swearing that it wasn't possible to get everything in.  

But somehow we did. (Yes, that's why I'm in the humanities!)

Ever since that seminal moment in my spatial relations education, I've been thinking about the idea of moving the smaller things to make room for the bigger ones, and how it might impact (for the better, of course) this chronically time-challenged rabbi.  It's a little time-management book waiting to be written. And, of course, it has even bigger implications for what we decide to make priorities in our lives, and what we let get in the way. I'm thinking Oprah…

I'm on my way back to Israel on Saturday night, to attend a conference convened by President Shimon Peres in honor of Israel's sixtieth birthday.  I hope to be posting from Jerusalem next week. 

For now, to all in the Jewish community wise enough to appreciate the blessing of Israel's very existence, I join with you in mourning her losses in the wars that she has had to fight, and also celebrating the great joy of this milestone anniversary.  I hope we can all make room to appreciate this genuinely "big thing" that we all too often take for granted- the glory of having a sovereign Jewish state in our lifetime!  Chag Sameach to us all….
   

PermaLink

Political Insider: Keeping Tabs on Jewish Republicans: Not a Nonpartisan Affair

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) may not reflect the voting behavior of a majority of Jewish voters, but it has no problem raising big bucks - and using that money to run aggressive ads attacking the Democrats.

Now a group of young Jewish Democrats says it will set up a new blog to monitor the RJC's "inaccuracies and hypocrisies."

The "Republican Jewish Coalition Watch" will "catalog both accurate statements and misleading remarks" in upcoming RJC ads, and will "attempt to document these statements by referring to non-partisan neutral sources," leaders of the new group said in a statement.

They cite an example: the RJC ran aggressive ads attacking Sen. Joe Lieberman and linking him to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan when the lawmaker was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, but they praised him in 2006, when Lieberman lost the Democratic primary to challenger Ned Lamont.

But the effort is anything but unpartisan and neutral; it reflects growing fears in Democratic circles that Sen. John McCain could grab the biggest share of Democratic votes since Ronald Reagan's 39 percent in 1980.

Democratic sources say the party will mount an aggressive effort to keep that from happening;  The Republican Jewish Coalition Watch, a project of the Young Democrats of America Jewish Caucus, is one front in that broad effort.

PermaLink

Political Insider:  McCain And Obama Get Their Bites From The Apple

Jewish outreach operations for both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama will be busy in New York on Monday, with events planned in Manhattan. But McCain's people got off to a rocky start when they planned their meeting (not a fundraiser, as reported elsewhere) at the Harmonie Club, which has been accused of restricting diversity in its membership. Obama canceled an event there last year because of this, and Mike Bloomberg resigned from the club prior to announcing his mayoral run. An appointee to the MTA recently also resigned from the club under pressure from members of the legislature.

When reporters started calling McCain's camp, the event was promptly switched to the St. Regis Hotel.

Houston businessman Fred Zeidman says he and his Jewish outreach co-chair Rep. Eric Cantor (the only Jewish Republican in the House of Representatives) had "no idea" the club was controversial.

"This was planned by New Yorkers," he said in an interview Friday. "I would think if there was any sensitivity, they might have been sensitive to it. I've eaten at the Harmonie Club, but I had no idea [it was controversial]. I assure you none of us had any inkling about this."

Zeidman said the event was planned by George Klein, a founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition. Klein did not return a message for comment but his secretary pointed out that he wasn't the host of the event.

Odds are Obama's camp won't raise this as an issue since they did the exact same thing last year.

Earlier in the week ABC News' Jake Tapper reported that McCain ousted Dearborn, Mich. Arab-American businessman Ali Jawad from his finance committee after conservative blogger Debbie Schlussel laid out a case that he has ties to Hezbollah. 

The Obama fundraiser will be hosted by Florida Rep. Bob Wexler, who knows his way around these parts as a Queens native. Wexler gained some national prominence last year when his office was the setting of last year's limited-run reality series "The Hill" on the Sundance Channel. The featured speaker is trailblazer Liz Holtzman, former congresswoman, Brooklyn district attorney and city comptroller.

PermaLink

Political Insider:  Obama's Blue Collar Blues

This week's Jewish Week story on Sen. Barak Obama's problems resulting from his long association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright (read it here)  naturally put a Jewish spin on things. 

There's little question Wright's reemergence on the national stage, his continued defense of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and his harsh rhetoric about America are upsetting even some staunch Jewish Democrats.

But as the story pointed out, Obama faces a much bigger Wright problem: a backlash from white working class voters, the segment where his support among Democratic voters is weakest.

After the story was published a new Pew Research poll (read it here )  offered stark confirmation of that point.

According to Pew, "Obama has lost ground among whites -- especially white working-class voters -- who now prefer Clinton by an even larger margin than they did in late March."

Sen. Hillary Clinton's lead among white voters who never went to college has increased from 10 points in March to 40 points now; her lead among white Democrats earning less than $50,000 a year jumped from 2 to 24 points, the research group noted.

That may not be enough to deny the Illinois lawmaker the Democratic nomination, but it is a troubling sign for the Democrats in a general election race in which race and class are certain to play an even bigger role than they did in the primaries.

But if Clinton does manage to wrest the nomination from Obama, analysts say the party faces the potential of an African American backlash.  Even a modest move by black voters to sit out the November election could be devastating for the Democrats.

"If Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, the Democrats go down the tubes," said Johns Hopkins political scientist Benjamin Ginsberg. "Black Democrats will see this as betrayal; if their turnout drops by even 20 percent, the Democrats are in very deep trouble."

No doubt the Wright  backlash is being driven to a considerable extent by Obama's political opponents in both parties and by the endless media quest for new and sensational stories.

But the results are real -- and a worrisome hint of what's to come when the Republican campaign machine really gets in gear in the fall.

The best strategy for Obama, according to Ginsberg: accept the fact that he will continue to "bleed" from the Wright wound, and look for "transfusions" by changing the subject to issues such as the sagging economy.

That could also help shore up support in the Jewish electorate, where economic angst  is becoming a bigger factor in this year's political races, several analysts said this week.

PermaLink

This Jewish Life:  Matzah, Matzah Everywhere

It seems like my trips home are gradually getting shorter and shorter.  I flew to Phoenix for Passover and was there for about 72 hours-not quite enough time to feel relaxed.  Between Seders, family members, errands, and high school friends, I barely had time to sit down. 

But, it was worth it to be able to spend Passover with my family.  My parents and all four of my grandparents reside in Arizona, so going home truly allows me to see the most important people in my life.  It's wonderful. 

And Passover is definitely one of my favorite holidays.  I love the rituals of the Seder and the ways that different families incorporate their own quirky traditions into their evenings.  In my family, we put an orange on the Seder plate to represent the people who have been excluded from full participation in the Jewish community because of gender, sexual orientation or some other characteristic. 

This practice in itself is an aberration from the classic Seder model, but the "quirky" tradition in my family is that someone always behaves as if this is the first time that an orange was seen on the Seder plate.  Despite the fact that we have put the orange there for as long as I can remember, someone always asks (in an overly dramatic tone), "What is this orange and why is it here?"  or "Is this one of those feminist things?"  These comments generally make me and the rest of the women at the table roll our eyes at whoever is talking, but it's our tradition and it does, on occasion, give rise to substantive discussion. 

The best part about this year's Passover was returning from home to an office where everyone (to some degree) was keeping Kosher for Passover.  There were boxes of Matzah on nearly every available countertop-desks, tables, kitchen counters, etc.  And there were crumbs everywhere.   It was a mess-but, it was a wonderful, constant reminder that we were celebrating Passover. 

In the past, Passover has always made me feel different from my peers-with my special meals and my inability to participate in certain events because of my observance.  But this year, for the first time, Passover was a reminder of the religious/cultural connection that I have to the people around me.  It was a welcome change. 

PermaLink

Political Insider:   Victory for Hadassah:  Congress Finally Passes Genetic Discrimination Bill

PermaLink

Route 17:  Pollard, The Chinese Spy

The recent arrest of an Israeli spy, Ben-Ami Kadish, brings Jonathan Pollard to mind, and one of the weakest, most infuriating arguments on Pollard's behalf: "He spied for a friendly nation," Israel.

As DeGaulle once said, nations don't have friends, they only have interests.

There is no such thing in any legal system - halachic, Israeli or American - allowing for greater leniency for crimes committed against a friend. Most murders are committed by someone who knows you, ostensibly a friend, not a stranger. Many murderers are even committed by "a lover." Is that better? If I steal my friend's wallet, is that better than  if I steal my enemy's wallet? If anything, it is more indecent to hurt and steal from a friend, not less.

Another thing for Pollard defenders to keep in mind when debating his sentence is the fact that you, dear defender, have no idea exactly what Pollard stole, how much he stole, where that information ended up, or the magnitude of the damage.

There is no leniency for "friendly flag" spying because all governments presume that once a spy steals and sells secrets, those secrets are thoroughly compromised, public information, known to friend and foe alike. There have been times when enemy governments have found it convenient to utilize a spy with a "friendly" passport.

The idea that spying or criminal activity by a "friendly flag" deserves a break is something that is considered very clever at Shabbos tables and very naïve anywhere else.

Just because Pollard started off spying for Israel, and most Jews think Pollard was spying only for Israel, a new report from the Department of Defense,  Changes in Espionage by Americans: 1947-2007," lists China, on Page 108, as a beneficiary, alongside Israel, of Pollard's espionage.

Are Pollard's defenders now going to say that spying for China is spying "for a friend," a harmless Zionist prank? Israel has interests, and apparently at one point those interests included sharing U.S. defense secrets, stolen by Pollard, with China.

In the season of Passover, here's a more spiritual, even a mystical, indictment of Pollard: When the Jews were slaves in Egypt, and it was time for the Ten Plagues, God told Moses to have Aaron, not Moses, be the one to turn the Nile into blood. It would be spiritually indecent for Moses, whose life was saved by the Nile, to lift his hand against the river that saved him, even when the purpose was as noble and undeniable as freeing Israelites from the most brutal oppression.

Aaron, not Moses, was even the agent for the second and third plagues, frogs and kinim (gnats) that were also considered river-based plagues.

For American Jews from immigrant families, such as Pollard's, the United States was our Nile. It took us in and saved us when Jews were oppressed in the Egypt of czarist Russia and Nazi Europe. If Israel needed something done and the only way it could get it done was espionage against the United States, let an Israeli "Aaron" do it, not an American Jew. If it was indecent for Moses, a child of the Nile, to lift his hand against the Nile, even when Jews were still slaves in Egypt, it is all the more indecent for an American Jew to lift his hand against the United States, the opposite of Egypt, the kindest country Jews have ever known.

All the more indecent when the beneficiary is a tyranny - China -- oppressor of not only her own people but the people of Tibet, Darfur, and a threat to the United States, the only real and consistent "friend" Israel ever had.

If assisting China and going against the United States is really in Israel's best interest, well, get Aaron to care, not me. 

PermaLink

Route 17:   Carter And Cocoa For Hamas

I think Jimmy Carter is every bit the anti-Zionist, perhaps even the anti-Semite, that many Jews think he is.

And yet, as a father, I liked the idea of Carter talking to Hamas.

There have been denunciations of Jimmy Carter from coast to coast, attacking Carter for speaking to Hamas in defiance of requests not to from the American and Israeli governments. But in none of the editorials, columns and sermons that I've seen, I didn't see anyone imagining what it would be like to be Noam Shalit.

Noam is the father of Gilad Shalit, held for nearly two years in a private Hamas Treblinka somewhere in Gaza. Israel has done nothing successful to free him. If anything, Israel is appeasing Hamas more than Carter is, sending the kidnappers 500,000 tons of cocoa, jam, tea, halava, hummus, and a lot of other treats that are hardly "humanitarian" necessities.

Here's a partial list of the Hamas take-out orderat a time when Shalit is in shackles.

Once Israel sent soldiers in the night to rescue Jews in Entebbe. Now, Israel sends terrorists cocoa and jam.

What's the point in doing that and not talking?

If it was my kid that might die, I'd talk to anyone. If it was your kid that might be killed, you'd talk to anyone, too. It's Noam Shalit's kid.

Jimmy Carter met with Noam Shalit before he met with Hamas. You can bet the father was fine with Carter talking to Hamas.

This is Yom HaShoah week so here's a Shoah story. In 1944, in the heat of the Holocaust, Rudolf Yisroel Kastner, a Zionist leader of the Hungarian Relief and Rescue Committee, held talks with top Nazi Adolf Eichmann, the man in charge of deportations to concentration camps. They smoked cigarettes together, cigarettes drawn  from silver cigarette holders, and conversed with ice cold calculation. In exchange for Kastner's coming up with a ransom of gold, cash, stocks and military equipment,  Eichmann allowed a "Kastner train" to take 1,684 Jews to Switzerland-and life. Another 20,000 Jews were saved by being diverted to labor camps instead of death camps.

Eichmann needed the money for his post-war getaway. Another Nazi in on the deal, SS officer Kurt Becher who handled the payoff, needed a post-war alibi. Kastner testified in Becher's successful defense at the preliminary heaings to the Nuremberg trials. Becher was not indicted.

Some Jews thought Kastner was worse than Carter. Kastner, who became active in Israeli politics after the war, was assassinated in 1957 by a Holocaust survivor who accused Kastner of collaborating with Nazis, and not warning the remaining Hungarian Jews that they were bound for Auschwitz. (According to Yad Vashem, Kastner did the best he could under the circumstances.)

If I was a Hungarian Jew in 1944, and the most anyone was doing for me was waving a placard at a rally, I'd have been fine with Kastner talking to Nazis.

If I was Gilad Shalit, or his parents, or if I was living in Sderot and no one could stop the Hamas rockets, I'd be fine with anyone talking to Hamas, even if nothing came of it.

The problem isn't talking to Hamas. The problem is not being prepared to fight Hamas to the death, like the Allies were fighting Germany while Kastner was talking to Eichmann.

You might remember that the Iranian hostage crisis ended the very day that Carter was replaced by Ronald Reagan, the man the Iranians knew was willing to fight, not just talk. A top leader of Hamas recently endorsed Barack Obama for president, the candidate everyone knows is the least likely to fight.

The first Kastner train left Budapest in June 1944. Eighteen Junes later, in 1962, Eichmann was hanged in Jerusalem.

The leaders of Hamas will get theirs yet.

In the meantime, as long as our gun is loaded, let's talk to Hamas. As we learn from "The Godfather," it's not personal. It's business.

PermaLink

A Rabbi's World:  Yom Hashoah 2008

With Pesach in our communal rear view mirror, there is precious little room for us to kick back and relax.  Yom Hashoah - Holocaust Memorial Day- is already upon us, and the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel is to be celebrated next week.  It is an incredibly dense stretch of the Jewish calendar, taking us on an emotional roller coaster ride from the high of Passover redemption to the low of the Shoah, and back again to the exhilaration of the miracle of Israel's birth.

Though I mention Yom Hashoah in the context of what both precedes and follows it in the Jewish calendar, the sad truth is that it stands alone, sui generis, lacking real context. 

It is certainly true that, as a scholarly endeavor, contextualizing the Holocaust is a legitimate and important field.  The roots of European anti-Semitism, the role of the church and of Christian teachings, what America knew or didn't know, did or didn't do…. All of this is important for insuring that the historicity of this monstrous event is fully documented and proved, and cannot be called into question as too many have already tried to do.

What I have experienced personally, however, is that the truest and most effective way to grasp the utter horror of that time is often to focus in on the narrower more than the larger perspective.   I personally came to this realization as I officiated, through the years, at the funeral services of survivor members of my own congregation in Forest Hills. 

As their family members sat with me to share information for their eulogies, I would hear the most incredible stories about these survivors- the same people who had quietly come to services on Shabbat and holidays, who had kibitzed with me and others about everything from synagogue politics to the fortunes of our local sports teams. 

This one was a partisan in the forest and lived for months on wild berries and rainwater; that one risked his life repeatedly to rescue his siblings; another was in five or six different concentration camps and then survived a death march when the Nazis had to evacuate the camp; yet another survived the war by fleeing to Siberia from Poland.  These are but a very few of the sagas, the individual stories, that lie behind the veneer of normal life that most survivors show the outside world.  

I have long been a proponent of the view that teaching children (and, for that matter, adults) that what was done to our people during the Shoah is the primary reason to live Jewishly today is an unfortunate and damaging idea.  We need to preach, teach and live a Judaism of joy and celebration, and we cannot and must not let the horrors of our history color our present in such a debilitating and all-encompassing way. 

But Yom Hashoah is a day when we are obliged to "go there;" to contemplate our enormous loss, grieve for the dead, struggle to absorb the implications of what was done to us, and understand the sacred challenge of memory.  There is no way to honor those who were killed without memory, and there is no way to remember without the pain, anger and loneliness that go with it.  And so it must be, at least on Yom Hashoah. 
 
 

PermaLink

Political Insider: Obama's Hamas Nod

It seems like a dream press release for the Republicans: Hamas backs Obama.

But evidently it's true. At least in the words of one Hamas spokesman.

"We like Mr. Obama, and we hope that he will win the elections," Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, told WorldNetDaily and WABC Radio in New York.

"I do believe [Obama] is like John Kennedy, a great man with a great principle. And he has a vision to change America, to [put] it in a position to lead the world community, but not with humiliation and arrogance."

Never mind that Obama has consistently said he supports the current U.S. isolation of Hamas until such time as it recognizes Israel's right to exist and renounces violence. He draws a distinction with his openness to talk to Iran because that is an established state government.

Evidently some in Hamas regard Obama is their best chance of being taken seriously by the new presidential administration.

But Republican John McCain wasted no time making hay of it, sending out a fundraising letter warning that "Barack Obama's foreign policy plans have even won him praise from Hamas leaders" and repeating Yousef's quote.

"We need change in America, but not the kind of change that wins kind words from Hamas, surrenders in Iraq and will hold unconditional talks with Iranian President Ahmadinejad," the letter continues.

One can almost imagine the field day the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) will have with this when they launch their pro-McCain ads. And who can blame them? Before that the best they had was Jimmy Carter's silly Mideast diplomacy jaunt, which has been dismissed by almost every Democrat that matters.

At the same time, the GOP in North Carolina, the next big primary battleground, is running ads exploiting Obama's ties with radical preacher Jeremiah Wright. In that case McCain, in a bid for the high ground, has asked the party not to run the ads, even as Obama's campaign denounces the "politics of association" and recalls his pledge to run a clean campaign.

PermaLink

Behind the Headlines: The Great Yeshiva `Riot' Of `68

Forty years ago this spring, Columbia University was rocked by student riots, and Yeshiva University, where I was a senior, was the scene of a major water fight. And therein lies a tale.

Keep in mind that the spring of 1968 was one of the most tumultuous times in modern American history, with the Vietnam war raging, the assassination of Martin Luther King in April and subsequent riots across the country, and only two months later, the murder of Sen. Bobby Kennedy moments after he won the California primary for the Democratic presidential nomination.

One sensed that the violent events taking place, less than five years after President Kennedy's assassination, were changing the course of American history, putting the nation on a downward spiral.

The student riots at Columbia that spring ostensibly were in protest of a university housing plan that would displace poor residents in the Morning Side Heights neighborhood. But they were more about anger over Vietnam, and the assertion of an emerging sex, drugs and rock and roll attitude among young people deeply suspicious of the Establishment.

Caught up in the atmosphere of the times, a group of Yeshiva seniors took the subway down to Columbia several warm afternoons to participate vicariously in the rebellious mood by watching the students screaming at the cops, calling them "pigs" and trying to provoke a violent response.

Despite the less than 60 blocks that separated them, the Columbia and YU campuses were really light years apart. One was at the cutting edge of revolution; one was framed by Talmudic study steeped in disputes of centuries past.

So the edginess of the times, compounded by final exams, played out in a major water fight in the main dorm one spring night at YU, with scores of students in their swim trunks heaving large cans of water on each other, and sometimes out the window onto Amsterdam Avenue.

Soon, the fire department arrived, with firemen wading through the puddles in the dorm halls, axes at the ready, responding to calls from neighbors. Surveying the scene, though, they were good-natured about the mess, and didn't stay long.

Hours later, well after midnight, two student activists from Columbia's SDS chapter, appeared at my dorm room. SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) was the radical group behind the Columbia protests, and it seems they had received word that, in their memorable words to my roommate and me, "Yeshiva was being liberated."

They said they were there to help us plan a takeover of the president's office.

Too embarrassed to explain that the commotion at YU was a water fight, not a student protest - and that any prospective rebellion at YU would have been quelled by a rabbinic scholar announcing that such acts were halachically not permissible, or just not right -- we listened as they urged us to secure maps of the administrative buildings and fortify ourselves for a long stay.

We nodded, scribbled notes, thanked them for their advice, and finally were rid of them, raising our fists to meet theirs in solidarity.

Then we had a good laugh before going back to sleep before another day of Talmud study and exams.

PermaLink

Political Insider:  Some Thoughts About Pennsylvania, Obama and Clinton, the Jewish Vote and Exit Poll Tyranny

So now it seems that Sen. Hillary Clinton scored a bigger victory with Jewish voters in Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary than the Jewish Week and other media outlets initially reported.

What happened? Once again, exit polls - the only source for information about how the vote breaks down by race, religion, gender and other factors - had to be "readjusted," which is a polite way of saying the pollsters were wrong.

The new numbers , released late Wednesday, showed a much bigger Clinton victory among Jewish voters - 62 percent instead of the 57 percent reported earlier.

That put her Jewish draw significantly above her overall take with Pennsylvania Democrats. But that may  be a somewhat misleading figure; more on that later.

First, the exit polls: we report on them because we have no choice, but we fear and distrust them.

Jewish Week readers turn to us not just to find out who won and who lost,  but how the Jews voted. And the only source of that information is exit polling.

But more and more, we're finding that the initial results, released shortly after the polls close, are wrong and need to be readjusted- sometimes repeatedly, sometimes with dramatic outcomes.

In California, we reported initially that Clinton won the Jewish vote, but it turned out a few days later that Obama won by a hair.

The Pennsylvania readjustment seemed dramatic - Clinton went up to 62 percent of the Jewish vote, Obama dropped to 38 percent - but that wasn't the whole story.

In fact, Jewish Democrats voted pretty much identically to other white Democrats.  While Obama won an incredible 90 percent of black Democrats, he got only 35 percent of white Democrats. So he actually did marginally better among Jewish Democrats than among the overall Democratic population.

Do the numbers suggest that the campaign of rumors, accusations and outright slurs aimed at Obama, especially in Jewish circles, is having an impact on Jewish voting?  Maybe -- but it's hard to draw any real conclusions from the available data.

Do the Pennsylvania results suggest Obama will have a big Jewish problem if he runs against Sen. John McCain in the general election in November? Possibly - but there's nothing to indicate that the Jews who voted for Clinton wouldn't stick with the Democrats if Obama is their party's nominee.

It could happen, Jewish Democrats concede - which is why they plan the most active Jewish outreach ever for the general election campaign.

Now we know how Pennsylvania Jews voted on Tuesday; what it means is a whole different story.  And the final chapter has yet to be written.

PermaLink

Political Insider: Kadish Consequences: Fallout from New Israel Spy Case

Tuesday's arrest of Ben-Ami Kadish, an 84-year old retiree from New Jersey, on charges of spying for Israel more than two decades ago leaves more questions than answers - a situation which, naturally, has produced an avalanche of conspiracy theories.

Among them: the charge that the indictment was deliberately timed to prevent the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard (and never mind that there isn't a shred of evidence Pollard's release was under discussion at the White House) and that it was timed to erode support for Israel on the eve of a major U.S. peace push -- to soften the Jewish state up for new U.S. pressure.  (Peace effort? Where? Talk about mirages).

Numerous reporters, including Stewart Ain in the Jewish Week (read story here), have asked relevant questions: why now, after all these years? What were government investigators looking for when they stumbled on  Kadish, who was leading an exemplary life in a retirement community? Who talked, and why?

Despite the case's many mysteries, some of its consequences are pretty clear.

The case doesn't threaten a rupture in U.S.-Israel relations, but it doesn't do them any good, and it is a public relations fiasco, reminding people of a long-abandoned spying effort that tarnished Israel's image as an ally.

There is a strange paradox in U.S.-Israeli military cooperation; it is stronger than ever, but there is also a lingering element of suspicion on the U.S. end that can only be fueled by the new/old spy case.

The case seems like proof that those who argued that Israel never really came clean about its Pollard-era spying were right.

Despite being about as stale as a case can be, it will serve as fresh ammunition for those claiming pro-Israel Jews can't be trusted with government secrets.  That was one legacy of the Pollard case; numerous high-level defense and security professionals who happened to be Jewish found themselves treated differently.  Thanks to the bizarre Kadish affair, that's likely to happen again.

The case is one more bad piece of news for Pollard, now in his 23rd year of incarceration. 

While there's no evidence President Bush was at all disposed to review the Pollard case, it would clearly be even more costly for him to do so while the Kadish case is generating headlines.  The new case will reenergize those in the intelligence community who remain vehemently opposed to Pollard's release - a vehemence that derives from a number of factors, including dislike of Israel, exaggerated fears about rampant dual loyalty, concerns that Israel never really owned up to what it did in the 1980s and anger that Pollard and his supporters continue to suggest that what he did was justified by the failure of U.S. authorities to share vital intelligence with Israel.

The controversy probably won't affect the legal proceedings in the long-delayed trial of two former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel lobby, but it could magnify the public opinion fallout from the case.

Nobody has accused the two - Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman - of spying, for Israel or for anybody else, but with the phrase "Israeli spies"  ricocheting across newspaper headlines, the public probably won't make that distinction.

PermaLink

Route 17:  Stories For A Shiva

As we say during Passover's Prayer for Dew, "With His consent, I shall speak of mysteries."

The death by lightning's fire of Scarsdale's Rabbi Jacob Rubenstein and his wife, Deborah, in the midnight hours of Shabbat April 12, were strangely a reminder of how wonderful this world is.

I, and all of us, must surely know at least a dozen fathers or mothers or children who died before their time. We know of natural disasters, fatal accidents and murders. We know, at least intellectually, that both you and I are tragedies in slow motion, doomed to die (too young, no matter the age). But this world is so invigorating, our spirits so resilient, our lives so rarely disrupted, that we're shocked to hear of unexpected death, as if we can't be hearing right.

I wasn't always so resilient. Once, as a teenager, on a long-ago Friday evening, not yet dark but after candles, I heard fire engines and sirens go by my window. The phone began ringing incessantly, it was Shabbos, I didn't pick up and when I picked up a voice said there was a fire in my grandparent's apartment, down the block, a fire from Shabbos candles. My grandfather's robe caught a spark. My grandmother tried to smother it with an embrace.

I'd been there only 20 minutes before, my grandmother reciting a favorite couplet, my grandfather readying for prayer, soup on the stove, the challah veiled.

After the ambulances left, the apartment was peaceful, almost nothing out of place. There was a silver candlestick lying on its side, a sooty handprint on the wall, soup on the stove, the challah veiled.

Did I just say the world was wonderful, a few paragraphs ago? I didn't know the world was wonderful at the time, let alone that death was so ordinary; sadness so happenstance. And what of the theology of it, death by Shabbos candles? Surely some young kids in Scarsdale are wondering how lightning could kill their rabbi and rebbetzin; "lightning will strike you" being almost a parody of God's anger.

I knew Rabbi Rubenstein in only the most peripheral, casual way. If we'd have met a few weeks ago on Weaver Street, we'd have said, most casually, "Wonderful day, aint it? What are you doing for the seders?"

Some things aren't for the living to know.

All of us have only a limited number of seders left; we can almost count them. And yet, like the angel touching our lips at birth, giving us the gift of forgetting, the seders fill us with wonder, and we'll be shocked anew when the phone call comes in the night. Such is the gift of angels, perhaps a parting gift from the Angel of Death.
 

To be honest, running into Rabbi Rubinstein would not have meant any more or less to me than running into any other casual acquaintance that I saw on the day of his funeral - on the avenue, at the Little League, at an engagement party, at the grocer.

It's interesting how much love can be felt for even a casual acquaintance when looking through the eyes of goodbye.
 

You might know someone only casually - someone you'd never call on the phone, someone with whom you'd rarely, if ever, share a confidence -- and yet, for shiva, we can walk into each other's home without knocking. People you'd never think will come, will come. Untold others will want to come, but can't, but they're thinking kindly of you. Most of us are loved and cared about far more than we suppose.

Some conversations are too awkward for the living. I see people in the park, acquaintances from over the years, we'll be sorry to see each other go. They mean something to me, but I'll never say so.

I'll tell their kids and next of kin when it's time to walk in without knocking.

I regret that during my grandparents' shiva I hadn't yet made the acquaintance of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy. If I could go back in time I'd give my younger self a short story of his (not so short, actually, it's a Russian story, after all) from 1881, "What Men Live By." With this link I give it to you.  It's for anyone who ever asked, what are you doing for the seders?; for those in hospital vigils, falling asleep in chairs by the bed; for those of you who may be in a vigil for yourself; for those who love with resilient spirit. With your consent, we'll speak of mysteries.

PermaLink

Political Insider:  10 Indicators for the Jewish Presidential Vote

Every four years, Jewish Republicans work their media contacts to generate stories about how the Jewish vote is about to change in their favor, only to be disappointed in November.
 

But that doesn't mean the Jewish vote can't change, or won't.  Jewish Democrats obviously worry about erosion, since they spend more time and money than ever on outreach to the Jewish electorate.
 

Those arguments are upon us once again in 2008.
 

Jewish Republicans say that no matter who the Democratic nominee is, Sen. John McCain will do better than any GOP nominee since Ronald Reagan hit 39 percent in 1980.
 

But Jewish Democrats point out that we heard similar predictions in 2004, when the GOP touted George W. Bush as the "best pro-Israel president ever."  But when the votes were counted, Bush received only 24-25 percent of the Jewish vote - better than four years earlier, but much lower than he got from other white, middle-class voter groups.
 

So how can we tell if the Jewish vote really is in flux this year? Here are a few signs to look for as we look at the relatively small segment of Jewish swing voters.

1.  The situation in the Middle East.

If things are generally quiet in the region, it will favor the Democratic nominee - or at least defuse the Israel issue somewhat as a draw for the GOP.

But if terrorism worsens, rocket attacks increase or the simmering conflict with Hezbollah or Hamas turns into open warfare, McCain could get a boost. Jewish voters tend to get more militant about pro-Israel issues when Israel seems more threatened than usual; when things are going okay, most focus on domestic issues, where the Democrats have a big edge.

2. Will the Democrats play to the center?

To win, the Democratic nominee must run a strongly centrist campaign and not play to the Democratic left. Jewish voters remain strongly Democratic and generally liberal, but they tend to react in fear if a candidate seems too cozy with the anti-Israel left.

Both Democratic contenders seem to be hewing to the center. But will they continue? How will they react to GOP efforts to portray them as secret leftists?

3.  Will the Republicans play to the center?

The conventional wisdom is that Republican candidates do best running to the right in the primaries and steering back to the center in the general election.

But John McCain can't afford to ignore a restive religious right that has been very cool to his candidacy. If millions of Christian conservatives stay home in November, he could face disaster.

If McCain keeps religious right leaders at arm's length, his Jewish numbers could go up; if he makes that faction a top target because he is fearful they and their supporters will sit out the election, his Jewish gains could be minimal to nonexistent.

4. Iraq.

McCain will argue that "winning" in Iraq is vital for Israel's security interests, but it's hard to see how the average Jewish voter -opposed to current Iraq policy - will go for that.

The more the war figures as a major campaign issue, and the more McCain defends Bush administration policy, the worse he is likely to do with Jewish voters who believe the war was a mistake in the first place.

5. Iran

All the candidates say we can't afford to let Iran go nuclear, echoing Jewish public opinion, but it's very unclear how the issue is likely to affect Jewish voting.

If Obama is the nominee, the Republicans will argue that his call for diplomacy is tantamount to appeasement.  If the Iranian threat seems more dire in November, that could work to McCain's advantage with Jewish swing voters.

But banging away on Iran could backfire if McCain's militancy persuades voters that he is likely to launch a new military campaign.

That would cheer Jewish neo-conservatives. But they're not likely to vote for a Democrat, anyway; the average Jewish voter is unlikely to be attracted by a Republican nominee who seems eager to commit to a third war.

6. The economy.

A sour economy always hurts the party that controls the White House. But this year there is also public unhappiness with the Democratic Congress' response.

Jews are like other voters: heavily influenced by pocketbook issues.

If American pocketbooks seem significantly more endangered when November rolls around, McCain's claims of strong national security credentials may seem a lot less important to Jewish voters than his self-proclaimed lack of expertise in economics and worries he would continue the economic policies of the Bush administration.

An improvement in the economy could make it easier for McCain to keep the focus where he wants it with Jewish voters: on terrorism and Israel's security.

7. Judges

Liberal Jewish groups say that eight years of Republican rule have transformed the federal judiciary in a way that will compromise church-state separation, endanger civil and abortion rights and generally undercut the Jewish domestic agenda.

Sen. McCain has promised to appoint Supreme Court Justices in the mold of Antonin Scalia won't be a plus with most Jewish voters. If the Democrats aggressively and effectively exploit that issue, and if McCain talks up his pledge to the party's conservative wing,  it could have an impact in keeping Jewish swing voters on the Democratic side of the ledger.

That's another reason the Republicans want to keep Jews focused on Israel and terrorism; the more that happens, the more domstic issues like the changing federal judiciary get lost in the shuffle.

8. Jeremiah Wright

Sen. Obama's preacher will provide a fat -- and  lucrative -- target for GOP ad agencies; how well Obama responds, if he is the nominee, could have a significant impact on Jewish voting.

The Republicans will demand he repeatedly damn his former spiritual mentor, and not just reject his views, but doing that could prove awkward in an election in which he will need a huge African American turnout to win.

Any sign Obama is equivocating in the face of repeated attacks could tip some Jewish swing voters over to the Republicans.

9. John Hagee

Sen. McCain now says he may have made a mistake in cozying up to the San Antonio megachurch preacher and Christian Zionist leader who has infuriated Catholics and gays.  But he desperately needs the religious right constituency that Hagee influences, so he can't go too far in his rejection.

Pro-Israel leaders increasingly accept Hagee, but his not-one-inch views about Mideast peace efforts, his call for preemptive war with Iran and his apocalyptic rhetoric are unlikely to sell with most Jewish voters. The more Hagee figures into the McCain campaign, the harder it will be for the presumptive nominee to score above President Bush's 2004 tally with Jewish voters; if Hagee fades from view by November, McCain will be in a better position with Jewish voters.

Jewish Democrats will try their best to highlight Hagee's past writings and his controversial statements, but it will be harder because the preacher has been koshered by major pro-Israel leaders.

10. Race

Jews like to talk about how the black-Jewish alliance helped create the civil rights revolution of the 1960s, but there is also a palpable uneasiness about a black community that, according to some, is a primary source of anti-Semitism in this country and whose leaders seem hostile to Israel.

If Obama is the nominee, the GOP will do its best to connect him to black extremists such as Louis Farrakhan; his responses will be scrutinized carefully by some nervous Jewish swing voters.

But if the Republicans or their friends in independent political groups play the race card too blatantly, it could hurt McCain with Jewish voters who remain committed to the basic precepts of the civil rights movement.

PermaLink

This Jewish Life: Down in New Orleans

I have never experienced such a diverse array of emotions as when I was in New Orleans this past week.  From excitement to disappointment, devastation to hope, exuberance to exhaustion, hopeful to discouraged, inadequate to useful-every ephemeral emotion was overwhelming.

The main purpose of my trip was for a meeting of the Commission on Social Action (CSA), the Union for Reform Judaism's policy-making body. My co-workers and I also managed to clear our schedules for a couple of days so that we could have a mini-vacation before the meeting actually started.

These first two days were a great taste of New Orleans culture.  We sat in the warm Louisiana sun listening to zydeco music, walked along Bourbon Street with fruity drinks in our hands, and ate beignets at various cafes throughout the city.  Like many people have described the city, it certainly felt like a European enclave in the middle of the South. 

During the CSA meeting, we explored the parts of New Orleans that were most affected by Hurricane Katrina and the rush of water that broke through the levees.  We took a bus tour around the city visiting sites of devastation and meeting incredible people who were taking part in the efforts to rebuild.  Despite the large numbers of people who seem to be involved with rebuilding, progress is happening incredibly slowly.

Certain neighborhoods and communities, especially those close to the levees, are still completely devastated and abandoned.  They almost seem like ghost towns.  As you drive down the streets, you can't help but imagine the people who used to live in the gutted homes.  Where are these people now?  What did they lose?  Who did they lose?

The most powerful stop on our New Orleans tour was at a modern orthodox synagogue that had been submerged under 10+ feet of water.  Every religious object in the building, including hundreds of tallitot and three sacred Torah scrolls were drowned and destroyed by the waters.  For some reason, I was particularly struck by the devastation in the synagogue.  It felt personal.  The synagogue could easily have been my synagogue and the Torah scrolls could have been the ones that I carried at my Bat Mitzvah. 

I didn't have the same feelings when I was driving through the neighborhoods looking at homes.  I was shocked, angered, disappointed and disheartened, but I didn't feel like I was able to empathize.  Only in the synagogue could I envision the incredible spirit of the community before it was devastated. 

To be honest, I am still processing all of the emotions that I had on this trip and figuring out now to translate my thoughts and feelings into actions.  I know that I want to help--somehow.  But, I haven't yet figured out how.  We as a country have not yet figured out how.   And we must.  In the words of Mitch Landrieu, Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, saving New Orleans is not just a question of saving the people affected by the hurricane, it is a matter of redeeming ourselves.

PermaLink

Political Insider: (Mostly Male) Jewish Leaders Meet Democratic Senators

Women are increasingly major players in Jewish communal and political affairs, but you'd never know it by looking at the delegation of machers who met with Democratic senators on Wednesday.

While there were six women among the 25 lawmakers at the table, there was only one woman among 20 Jewish leaders - Nancy Ratzan, the new president of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW).

Asked about the striking gender imbalance, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, chair of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, responded with exquisit diplomacy.

"I'm very glad (Ratzan) was there," the lawmaker said. "I'm always interested in having as many women at the table as possible."

The mostly male Jewish leaders discussed a range of issues, from the Iranian threat and Israeli security to mounting efforts by groups such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) to fight poverty.

High on the list of priorities for some Jewish groups, including Jewish Federations and the United Jewish Communities: the administration's proposed cutbacks in Medicare and Medicaid, which Jewish leaders are urgently pressing the Democratic Congress to block.

"What we heard was not just the agenda of the Jewish community, but the agenda of America, in terms of focusing on those things that lift people up out of poverty, creating opportunity through education and the challenge of energy independence," Stabenow said.

Asked about the new pro-peace process lobby unveiled yesterday, Stabenow responded with the tact of a veteran politician - praising AIPAC, the main pro-Israel lobby, but saying the new J Street lobby and political action committee represent "another important voice. Having another set of voices come to the table is a good thing."

PermaLink

Political Insider: Pennsylvania Race: A Jewish Yawn?

Jewish pundits continue to write about the potentially big impact of the Jewish vote in next week's Pennsylvania Democratic primary, but you can tell their hearts aren't in it.

The reason: almost nobody expects this latest skirmish in the Democratic war of attrition will settle things between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Polls suggest there hasn't been much movement in recent days. Clinton remains on top - by a modest margin, according to some polls, a slim one according to others.

But in the end, it's clear Obama will come away with almost as many delegates, enough to keep his lead in the all-important race for votes at this summer's convention.

That means the race is increasingly coming down to a battle to win over the hundreds of "superdelegates" who aren't bound by primary results.

Some are arguing that that fight, too, has a Jewish component (what issue doesn't?), but that may be a little silly.

Sure, a disproportionate number of superdeleges are Jewish, since a disproportionate number of Democratic activists are Jewish. 

But while issues such as Israel, Rev. Wright and Louis Farrakhan may play big in primary elections, this fight is really about insider issues: which candidate is seen as having the best chance of winning the White House for the Democrats in November,  who's the best wheeler and dealer.

Sorry, folks, but the race for the Democratic nomination is increasingly lacking in Jewish content - unless you're interested in the longstanding reality that Jews are heavily involved in party affairs.

PermaLink

Political Insider:  Kippa Politics II: Presidential Edition

I earlier blogged (read it here )  about the fancy knitted yarmulke sported by Sen. John McCain last month during his visit to the Western Wall. Now get ready for the Commander-In-Chief Model.

The Israel chapter of a group called Republicans Abroad (expatriates who vote by absentee ballot) recently gave President Bush a handmade kippa shruga during a Passover program at the White House. The yarmulke is emblazoned with not one but two American flags and the Hebrew title "HaNasi," the president.  They'd like him to wear it during his second visit to Israel in recent months, since last time he appeared in one of those decidedly unpresidential handouts.  "His black satin hotel kippa last month was an embarrassment," said one Jewish Republican.

It was knitted by Shira Gvir, a member of the Republican National Committee and daughter of a former Israeli ambassador to the U.N., Raphael Gvir. Republicans Abroad Israel also claims credit for the McCain kippas, one of which reads in Hebrew "the senator," while another hopeful one reads, "the president," keeping all the bases, well,  covered.

A source who was at the White House Passover ceremony said the president "required a brief explanation of how to position the flags in the front and the name in the back so people could read it."

PermaLink

Political Insider:  Presidential Portents at ADL Meeting

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) may be as close as it gets to a group reflecting the activist core of Jewish politics: focused heavily on Israel, worried about anti-Semitism, staunch church-state separationists and civil rights supporters.

So the political buzz at its national leadership meetings in Washington this week may offer some clues about the problems facing the presidential candidates as they seek Jewish votes.

At a presidential surrogates forum yesterday (moderated by this reporter), there were some alarming signs for Sen. Barack Obama, who leads the bitter race for the Democratic nomination.

Obama was represented by Rep. Stephen Cohen (D-Tenn.), who created a stir when he came to the defense of former President Jimmy Carter, who was snubbed by Israel during a visit this week because o