Eric Fingerhut attends a session on MLK, Obama and black-Jewish relations. Ron Kampeas checks out an event with Obama foreign policy advisers and then interviews a Chinese convert to Judaism running for Congress.

Less than three weeks after overcoming an anti-Semitic advertisement from his opponent to win his Democratic primary election in Memphis, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) requested the floor Monday at a National Jewish Democratic Council event in Denver to thank the organization for its assistance.

“Ira and NJDC were very helpful,” said Cohen, referring to NJDC executive director Ira Forman at the group’s seminar on the vote seminar. “I had a lot of help from people from NJDC.”

Cohen is the only white representative to represent a majority African American district in the House of Representatives, and said his huge 79-19 win was “a tribute to the voters of Memphis.” His opponent ran an ad in the last days of the campaign suggesting that his Judaism made him an outsider in the district.

“For people who tell me African Americans and Jews have problems — they don’t in Memphis,” said Cohen, earning a big round of applause.

We just spoke with U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim elected to Congress - we’ll post the video later this evening soon.

Ellison talked about how he worked with Jewish supporters in his Minneapolis district to get elected in 2006, and how that could translate into a nationwide model for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

He also spoke about his get-out-the vote efforts for Al Franken, the comedian/talkshow host attempting to unseat Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) (both candidates are Jewish).

Ellison noted that Franken is catching up with Coleman in recent polling. “The momentum is with Al Franken,” he said. “We’re going to make Al a senator.”

More substantially, Ellison differed with his party — and its presidential candidate — on tough language in the platform on Iran, which talks about keeping “all options on the table” in attempting to get the Islamic Republic to stand down from its suspected nuclear weapons program.

“When you explicitly say the military option is on the table it’s like saying, ‘Let’s negotiate, but this Colt 45 is gonna be sitting here just in case the conversation doesn’t stay right’,” Ellison said. “I don’t think that the implied threat of force is necessary. I hope the Obama administration understands that peace is wrapped up not ultimately in military solutions but in trying to make parties come together.”

Ellison says the United States should draw its example from Israel, which is actively pursuing peace talks on multiple fronts.

“Israel itself is saying our security cannot be exclusively wrapped up in military options.”

A panel of pollsters and pundits at Monday’s National Jewish Democratic Council “Jewish Vote Seminar” agreed that Barack Obama is underperforming among Jewish voters compared to recent historical standards — just 61-62 percent in recent polls of Jewish voters, in contrast to the 75 percent and above that Democrats have won among Jews in the last four presidential elections. But while most commentary in recent months has attributed the difference to a variety of factors involving Obama — from not being well known enough in the Jewish community to e-mails spreading false rumors about his religious background — two members of the panel had a different explanation: Jews just like John McCain more than most other Republicans.

“McCain’s appeal is personal,” said Stuart Rothenberg, a columnist for Roll Call and editor of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report. “John McCain is not as scary to people as certain Republicans.” He added that he’d be surprised if there was any change in the Jewish vote in congressional races from 2006, where Democrats received 86 percent of Jewish support.

Richard Baehr, a writer for the conservative American Thinker Web site, agreed. “It’s more McCain being viewed positively than Obama being viewed negatively,” he said, noting that the Arizonan “doesn’t wear Christian conservatism on his sleeve.” Baehr also pointed out that Hillary Clinton was receiving just 66 percent in polls last spring, even though they were no questions about her among American Jews.

Their theory was vehemently disputed by South Florida Jewish Democrats in the audience as well as by Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg. “For the overall electorate, not just Jewish voters, this election is mostly a referendum about Barack Obama,” she said.

The way to combat Jewish affection of McCain, said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, is for Democrats to make the community more aware of the GOP candidate’s conservative issues on social issues such as abortion rights.

Jewish Democrats won’t have help from the media in getting that message out, though. Rothenberg said that while McCain may take conservative positions on social issues, “most of us [in the press] think McCain doesn’t care about that” and give him a free pass — believing issues of national security and foriegn policy are what really motivates the Republican. “It’s up to the Democrats to say here is his record,” said Rothenberg.

• “It’s still iffy, which is freaking me out”: That, according to the New York Times, was what one Boca Raton precinct coordinator had to say about the attitude of some “lifelong Jewish Democrats” toward Barack Obama. The coordinator was attending a Hillary Clinton appearance for Obama in South Florida. More details on the rally in the Miami Herald.
• In a article entitled “The Shmegege Vote: 2008,” Susan Isaacs at The Huffington Post wonders how prejudice will affect Jews when they enter the voting booth.
• The Forward looks at the key Jewish behind-the-scenes players in the Obama campaign.
• The Forward also reports that historians and political observers believe Thursday will be the first time in political convention history that a rabbi gives an invocation before a presidential nominee acceptance speech.
• Rabbi Amy Schwartzman talks to the Washington Jewish Week about her participation in the Democratic National Convention’s interfaith gathering on Sunday.
• JTA looked in on the Democrats’ faith focus earlier this week, as did the the New York Jewish Week, with some finding the emphasis excessive.
• Daniel Burrell at The Huffington Post writes Obama should get tougher on Iran because it will help him with Jewish voters.
• Jim Besser at the New York Jewish Week says the McCain campaign seems to be taking tips from Mort Klein and the Zionist Organization of America in its attacks on Obama adviser Dan Kurtzer.
• Jay Michaelson, writing in the Forward, suggests that treating Israel as the pre-eminent “Jewish issue” of the campaign may be bad for Judaism.
• The blind rabbi running for Congress, Dennis Shulman, is using a parody of “The Office” to attack opponent Scott Garrett over his ties to “Texas oilmen.”

News on some congressional races to watch over the next few months:

Could we have a Jewish member of Congress from Alaska? Two weeks before the primary, it’s certainly not out of the question. A poll shows state represenative Ethan Berkowitz is looking pretty good in the race to be the Democratic nominee, and in the general election he is up by 15 points on scandal-plagued Republican incumbent Don Young. The polls show a much closer race, though, if Young is knocked off in the GOP primary by current Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell. The Cook Political Report rates the race a tossup.

Twenty-nine year-old Jewish Democrat Josh Segall has raised more money than any other Democratic challenger in the state of Alabama, although the incumbent in Alabama’s Third District, Mike Rogers, still has more money in the bank. That race is still rated likely Republican by Cook.

In the only U.S. Senate race in the country where two Jewish candidates will face off, incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken are battling over who can cut Iraq reconstruction funds more. Last week, Coleman proposed a cut of $1.1 billion because of Iraq’s big surplus due to oil and gas revenus. Franken raised the ante Monday, calling for $7.1 billion in funds to be rescinded and put towards repairing America’s infrastructure. That race is considered a tossup.

Finally, in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Jim Saxton (R-N.J.) in New Jersey’s Third District, Democratic state Sen. John Adler’s huge fundraising advantage–due to a rough Republican primary his opponent Chris Myers had to spend lots of money on–led CQ Politics to move the race from Leans Republican to No Clear Favorite. Cook also has the Cherry Hill district rated a tossup.

After Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) beat Democratic primary opponent Nikki Tinker in a landslide on Aug. 7 (read JTA’s story here), New York Times columnist Bob Herbert called it a victory against racism (in this case, against whites) and anti-Semitism:

In that Ninth Congressional District of Memphis, a district that is predominantly black in a city that has had its share of racial trouble — the city in which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed — Mr. Cohen won an astonishing 80 percent of the vote, sweeping all demographic categories and destroying the disgusting (yes, stomach-turning) campaign of Nikki Tinker.

For the moment, at least, we can put the Pepto-Bismol aside and raise a glass of Champagne.

The voters in Mr. Cohen’s district rejected the Tinker tactics overwhelmingly, refusing to succumb to the blandishments of racism or anti-Semitism. Instead of abandoning their congressman, they rallied around him when the filth started coming his way.

Rep. Steve Cohen’s (D-Tenn.) victory in yesterday’s Democratic congressional primary wasn’t necessarily a surprise, but his 60 percentage point margin of victory was unexpected–and perhaps a sign why his African-American opponent, Nikki Tinker, was desperate enough to run an ad deemed anti-Semitic by many observers.

First of all, if you never saw the ad, which portrayed Cohen as an outsider because of his Judaism, you can check it out here.

The Atlantic’s new blogger, Ta-nehisi Coates, argues that the advertisement was race-baiting, but doesn’t quite rise to the level of Jew-baiting. I’m not really buying the argument–when you combine the line about visiting “our churches” with the line “he’s the only senator who thought our kids shouldn’t be allowed to pray in school,” would the ad make sense against a white Christian candidate?

Coates also explores whether the Congressional Black Caucus should have allowed Cohen to join when he applied to be a member last year.

An interesting argument: If Cohen had lost, it would have been deemed a horrible day for black-Jewish relations? So shouldn’t his resounding win be seen as a really good day for black-Jewish relations?

A Nashville blogger calling herself “A Progressive Jew down in the Bible Belt” says the EMILY’s List endorsement of Tinker demonstrates that the feminist organization “may have outlived its purpose.”

And a religion blog argues that some of the media overlooked the religion angle in favor of playing up the race angle, and thus is missing part of the story.

Barack Obama today condemned a television advertisement that portrayed Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) as an outsider because of his Judaism, but Cohen’s campaign manager said he didn’t think the statement by the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee would make much of a difference as voters go to the polls today.

“These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics,” Obama said in a statement, “and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee. It’s time to turn the page on a politics driven by negativity and division so that we can come together to lift up our communities and our country.”

Obama was referring to an ad run this week by Nikki Tinker, the African-American challenger to Cohen in the Memphis district. It charged that while Cohen visits “our churches, clapping his hands and tapping his feet … he’s the only senator who thought our kids shouldn’t be allowed to pray in school,” referring to a 1997 vote Cohen made as a state senator. The ad concluded with the phrase “sometimes apologies just aren’t enough,” a reference to a resolution Cohen sponsored in the House of Representatives apologizing for slavery and the Jim Crow era which passed by voice vote last month. That ad followed a spot that began airing Friday which attacked the one-term incumbent for opposing the removal of a statue of a Klu Klux Klan leader from a Memphis park.

But Cohen campaign manager Jerry Austin said the Obama statement is “not going to affect” the race, because most voters either had already voted by the time it was released or are unlikely to hear about it before the polls close at 7 p.m.

Austin also noted that the Obama statement was not an endorsement and didn’t even specifically mention Cohen’s name.

“We’re going to win without any of this,” said Austin.

Cohen represents a majority-African-American district in Memphis, the area formerly represented by former Reps. Harold Ford Jr. and his father, Harold Ford Sr. He was a supporter of Obama during the primary and spoke on the senator’s behalf at a election panel at the Anti-Defamation League’s annual conference last spring.

The prayer ad also was condemned by Emily’s List, an organization which raises money for female candidates and had backed Tinker — although visitors to the group’s Web site on Thursday could still donate money to her campaign. In addition, Tinker was named “Worst Person in the World” by Keith Olbermann on Wednesday evening.

The Tinker campaign has since pulled the spot from YouTube.

The ad follows literature that was distributed in the district earlier this year by a Tinker supporter and minister which read “Cohen and the Jews HATE Jesus” and urged the defeat of an “opponent of Chist and Christianity.” Similar flyers from the same minister have circulated in the last few weeks.

One of the more interesting congressional races this year is in New Jersey’s 5th district, where a blind rabbi named Dennis Shulman, a Democrat, is closing the gap against Republican incumbent Scott Garrett, who is known for being pro-Israel and for his conservative views.

Shulman, an ordained Reform rabbi with a Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard, has done a formidable job raising money for his run, Time magazine reports, and Congressional Quarterly recently upgraded Shulman’s chances, changing the district’s rating from “Safe Republican” to “Republican Favored.” The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin offers a profile of the candidate in this week’s Talk of the Town.

Shulman has been endorsed by J Street, the new left-wing pro-Israel lobby, while Garrett remains a favorite of the more hawkish pro-Israel community.

• Jake Tapper of ABC News debunks latest right-wing claim that Obama was raised as a Muslim.
• But, Tapper’s scoop was quickly overshadowed by this gem from Ben Smith of Politico: “Two Muslim women at Barack Obama’s rally in Detroit on Monday were barred from sitting behind the podium by campaign volunteers seeking to prevent the women’s headscarves from appearing in photographs or on television with the candidate.” (If only the Obama campaign hadn’t offered such a strong apology, maybe the Democratic candidate could have improved his image with some conservative pundits.)
• Obama Mideast adviser Daniel Kurtzer says the candidate “misused” a codeword when he said Jerusalem should remain undivided — but insists the candidate is not naive.
• Fine, then it’s a flop flop, says the Republican Jewish Coalition.
• The National Jewish Democratic Council rounds up material about McCain aides who lobbied/traded with Iran.
• The Jewish Press, a pro-settlements New York-based Orthodox newspaper, notes that McCain’s position on Jerusalem is essentially the same as Obama’s — and raises some concerns about the Arizona senator.
• Writing in Salon, Walter Shapiro makes the case for the McCain-Lieberman ticket.
• Shmuel Rosner of Ha’aretz wonders how many Jews will be in the next Congress (lucky for him, in the Internet era, he can keep up with this stuff even after he moves back to Israel — because counting Jews in the Knesset just isn’t the same).

J Street says that on Monday it will announce its first slate of endorsed candidates. …

MEDIA ADVISORY

June 11, 2008

JStreetPAC to Announce First Endorsements Monday

WASHINGTON – The country’s first and only pro-Israel, pro-peace PAC will announce its first endorsements Monday of House candidates committed to strong American leadership to achieve a negotiated, two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In keeping with its mission to establish a new voice on Israel and the Middle East in American politics, Monday’s endorsements will highlight fresh faces – freshmen members of Congress, challengers and competitors for open seats – whose public records and campaign platforms are in line with the PAC’s positions.

Monday’s endorsements will be the first of several rounds that JStreetPAC will make in this election cycle. The PAC will target its efforts in 2008 on no more than a few dozen candidates running for the House and one or two for the Senate.

Ron Kampeas has a brief up about Ehud Olmert’s speech at the AIPAC policy conference on Tuesday night. Uriel Heilman will have a longer story on Wednesday.

My initial impression: The audience response was tepid — not only for Olmert’s pitch for talks with Syria and the Palestinians, but also for the prime minister himself. Even the handful of standing ovations seemed perfunctory.

Here’s the audio:

Dennis Shulman, the Democratic rabbi seeking to upend incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett in New Jersey’s 5th, put out a statement criticizing Jimmy Carter’s meeting with Hamas leaders.

Dennis Shulman’s Statement Concerning Jimmy Carter and Hamas

Demarest, NJ – “As a Democrat and a proud supporter of Israel, I am deeply disturbed by President Carter’s decision to treat terrorist leaders like Khalid Meshaal as if they are dignitaries,” said Shulman. “I support efforts to promote peace, but I see no signs that elevating Hamas before it renounces terrorism and its opposition to the very existence of Israel will help bring about peace.”

###

Dr. Dennis Shulman has gained international recognition for his 30 years of work as a psychologist, educator, and author. An ordained rabbi for five years and blind since childhood, he has lived in New Jersey’s Fifth District for more than 25 years with his wife, Dr. Pamela Tropper, an obstetrician. They have two adult daughters.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton respond to list of questions from the Jewish Chronicle of Pittsburgh.

The New York Jewish Week urges voters to insist on more details from the presidential candidates about how they will deal with the Middle East.

Philadelphia magazine takes a look at one of Obama’s top Jewish backers in Pennsylvania.

From the Jewish Exponent: a top Hillary adviser meets with local rabbis and Obama’s Jewish supporters issue open letter. The paper is holding a forum with surrogates from the campaigns on Monday.

A writer in the Jewish Press wants John McCain to make Sam Brownback his running mate. The newspaper says in an editorial Obama’s words rarely match his actions.

Jewish Democrats in New Jersey: Can’t we all just get along?

The Forward’s Jennifer Siegel profiles an Indiana Jewish pol’s bid for Congress.