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Continuing fallout from Pa. GOP letter

By Lisa Hostein · October 29, 2008

The fallout continues over the Pa. GOP letter that suggested that a vote for Barack Obama could lead to another Holocaust. After JTA’s initial reports on the letter and the public apology issued by one of the Jewish signatories, former state supreme court justice Sandra Schultz Newman, the mainstream media has latched on to the issue, including Slate, the Philadelphia Inquirer and local television and radio.

Less public are the reverberations hitting the local Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, whose campaign chairman, I. Michael Coslov, was one of the three Jewish signatories.  For legal reasons, because of its non-profit status as a 501c3 as well as shalom bayit, to keep peace in the community, the federation has always taken pains to avoid endorsing political candidates.
The current federation president, Leonard Barrack, told JTA earlier this week that the federation by-laws make clear that only the CEO and president are prohibited from endorsing political candidates. Coslov is widely assumed to become the next federation president, though federation officials caution that the nominating process has not even begun.

But some in the community, including federation trustees, are not happy.
One of those trustees, Lynn Zeitlin, a prominent Philadelphia attorney, wrote to the federation:

I want to know when the Jewish Federation will denounce and demand a retraction of the email that was signed by the campaign chair of Federation, albeit as a private citizen, which email was condemned by the ADL and many others. I understand that Justice Newman has issued an apology. I would like to know if Federation is demanding that its campaign chair also issue an apology or resign his position.

The federations’s chief marketing officer, Alex Stroker, wrote back that the federation was working on “next steps to remedy any and all negative perceptions this may have caused,” Zeitlin said.

She has also written to Coslov directly, seeking an apology.

Stroker told JTA that the federation has received only a few calls and e-mails, but he acknowledged that “people are not happy” and that there’s a lot of discussion going on about the situation. He did not know what the next steps would be.
Coslov himself has not issued an apology but has distanced himself from the letter, saying he never read the full text and that he’s not “that extreme.”
Both Barrack and Stroker emphasized that Coslov signed the letter as a private citizen. “You can’t tell private citizens what to do,” Stroker said.

The whole flap speaks to the overall tenor of the campaign this year and how vigorously Jews in Pennsylvania are being courted.

One involved member of the local Jewish community, Robert Fox, called for a halt to all the infighting, with a Dayeinu:

Dayeinu.  Regardless of whether you are solid for Barack, McCain and able, Biden your time, or pining for Palin.  Dayeinu.  The rhetoric within the Jewish community is too hot, too shrill and quite frankly unbecoming of us all.  As Jews, we ALL value that America was founded on the bedrock principle of religious pluralism, a principle that protects our rights as a religious minority to worship freely.

We ALL value tikun olam, the need and obligation to help others less fortunate.  And, we ALL value the unique democracy America offers.  It is our obligation as a Jewish community to use these democratic values wisely, to exercise our free speech carefully without rancor, accusation and innuendos.

We as a Jewish community may sing in different ways, but we must begin again ALL singing from the same song book.  Find the ties that bind rather than divide us.  The harmony will be beautiful.

I bet he and many others can’t wait until next Tuesday.

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Political tidbits: Joe the Plumber takes on the Middle East and Shepard Smith is appalled

By Eric Fingerhut · October 29, 2008

• A Jewish senior citizen told “Joe the Plumber” at a campaign appearance Tuesday that the election of Obama would bring “death to Israel” – and Joe agreed. Later, asked by Fox News’ Shepard Smith whether he thinks John McCain agrees with him, Joe said he had no idea and it was his “personal opinion” that he’d come up with by “looking into different facts” – and that people shouldn’t listen to his opinion anyway. Smith is so appalled after the interview that he mutters “it just gets frightening sometimes” and states that Obama “has said and demonstrated repeatedly that Israel will always be a friend of the United States.” The Huffington Post has the video. The McCain campaign doesn’t seem nearly as disgusted, saying Joe is offering “penetrating and clear analysis.”
  
• David Gelernter writes in the Weekly Standard that the best word to describe John McCain is a Hebrew one – tsaddik, “a man of such nobility and moral substance that he approaches holiness.”
  
• The Huffington Post has the details on a Florida GOP mailer that calls Obama “no friend of Israel.”
• Photos of Obama with leaders of all three of Israel’s major political parties are featured on a mailer the Obama-Biden campaign is sending out in Florida, reports Lynn Sweet in the Chicago Sun-Times.
  
• Under the headline “How the GOP Scares Jews,” Slate examines the e-mail the Pennsylvania GOP sent out to Jewish voters suggesting that an Obama win could bring a second Holocaust.
  
• Michael Freund of the Jerusalem Post is disturbed that Israel’s foes are all rooting for Obama.
• Raphael Sonenshein speculates why recent polls are showing Jewish voters moving to Obama – and says Sarah Palin’s failure to name a single newspaper she reads couldn’t have helped the Republican ticket, in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal.
  
• A liberal pro-choice Jewish woman for McCain explains her reasons, at the American Thinker.
• “From Iran Agression to U.S. Recession: The Challenges Ahead”: Mona Charen, David Horowitz, Cliff May, Daniel Pipes and Michael Medved discuss the campaign’s issues, from a conservative perspective, in a forum sponsored by the Jewish Policy Center.
• Does the voiceover on this McCain ad about Obama and Iran sound “suspiciously Jewish,” Jeffrey Goldberg wonders at The Atlantic.
• Sen. John Cornyn’s campaign manager calls Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) “a nut.” His Democratic opponent Dennis Shulman’s daughter, a Capitol Hill aide, gets it on tape, according to The Hill (Fourth item down).
  
• John and Cindy McCain photographed with a McCippah.

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Holocaust hype enters the elections

By Lisa Hostein · October 27, 2008

Just days after an email to 75,000 Pennsylvania Jews suggested that a vote for Barack Obama could cause another Holocaust, at least two of the signatories to the letter are distancing themselves from it.
This after the political operative who apparently wrote the letter was fired.

The letter, paid for by the state Republican Party, caused a huge uproar, with e-mails flying back and forth.

Both I. Michael Coslov, the campaign chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, and Sandra Schultz Newman, a former state supreme court justice, are distancing themselves from the letter, saying they hadn’t actually read its contents before signing on.

Coslov said he doesn’t think Obama is “right for the Jewish people, but I don’t think he’s going to cause another Holocaust.”

Newman issued an apology to those who had e-mailed her objecting to the letter.

“I regret that I did not carefully review the final draft before it was released with my signature,” she wrote. “Some of the language was inappropriate and intemporate. I apologize to anyone who was offended by this misguided e-mail.”

But another Republican salvo continued the theme over the weekend. The Republican Jewish Coalition mobilized volunteers to distribute leaflets in heavily Jewish neighborhoods in suburban Philadelphia. The glossy leaflets also referenced the Holocaust indirectly.

Featuring a photo of Obama speaking in Germany, the sheet said: “Concerned about Obama? You should be. History has shown that a naive and weak foreign policy has resulted in tragic outcomes for the Jewish people.”

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Political tidbits: Gallup poll reactions, Palin wig big in Brooklyn

By Eric Fingerhut · October 24, 2008

• A McCain supporter changes his mind in the voting booth and casts his ballot for Obama after talking to a group of Jewish women who convince him how historic Obama’s election would be. He also loans them his Dale Earnhardt jacket so they can cover up their Obama shirts and vote, according to Politico.
• Looking at yesterday’s Gallup poll, Shmuel Rosner, in Commentary, analyzes why Obama has gained ground in the Jewish community. Meanwhile, Salon’s Glenn Greenwald claims that Obama’s Jewish problem was a “baseless myth.”
• Should the Great Schlep have gone to Hillels? Jacques Berlinerblau wonders after noting that the Gallup poll found older Jews support Obama in slightly bigger numbers than younger Jews.
• Did Republicans, as Colin Powell charged on “Meet the Press,” spread the “Obama is a Muslim” rumor? Steven Waldman looks into that question in the Wall Street Journal, and finds that while John McCain is innocent, others aren’t.
  
• Hilary Leila Krieger looks at Obama’s Jewish political connections in the Jerusalem Post.
• Dennis Ross talks to Haaretz about being a surrogate for Obama in Florida.
• Just like in their television ad, the Republican Jewish Coalition’s new newspaper ad uses Hillary Clinton to attack Barack Obama, comparing Clinton and John McCain’s positions to the Democratic nominee’s stances on three issues and finding Obama the odd man out.
• The NJDC’s Aaron Keyak notes on the Huffington Post that Sarah Palin was campaigning with the senator who blocked a bill tightening sanctions on Iran.
• Jerry Stiller, Rhea Pearlman, Carl Reiner, Danny DeVito: They’re all old sitcom stars, and they’ve all cut pro-Obama ads for the Jewish Alliance for Change.
  
• Surrogates for the candidates debate at Jewish forums in Philadelphia and Palm Beach County.
  
• A London writer spends some time with some New Jersey Obama supporters who are worried the news is too good for their candidate.
• The Sarah Palin wig is a big hit in Brooklyn among Orthodox women, according to the New York Daily News.

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Political tidbits: Obama effigy found in Ohio, McCain townhall reaction

By Eric Fingerhut · October 20, 2008

• A man hangs an Obama effigy in his front yard – with a Star of David on the top of his head – and freely admits he doesn’t want a black man as president. The Huffington Post has the video from a local TV station in Ohio.
• John McCain isn’t going to bring up Obama’s relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but won’t ask the Republican Jewish Coalition to stop putting him in their ads, according to Newsweek.
  
• McCain turned down an opportunity from Rabbi Shlomo Riskin yesterday to talk about Wright at a Jewish “tele-town hall meeting.”
• M.J. Rosenberg rips Riskin for spending years living in Israel and yet presuming to advise U.S. presidential candidates on strategy, at TPM Cafe.
• Jim Besser of The Jewish Week felt the McCain meeting seemed too staged.
• Menachem Rosensaft on McCain’s “pals” like Phil Gramm and Randy Scheunemann, in the Huffington Post.
• Here’s the National Jewish Democratic Council’s newest print ad, making the case that Obama-Biden will protect Israel and achieve energy independence.
  
• And here’s the Republican Jewish Coalition’s new television ad, using Hillary Clinton to criticize Obama for saying he’d meet with the leaders of rogue states.
  
• Every church and synagogue in the United States is going to receive the anti-radical Islam film Obsession, according to Marketwatch. It’s coming enclosed with a new right-wing, anti-gay marriage and anti-abortion publication called The Judeo-Christian View, which is backed by a couple Orthodox rabbis and charges that Obama’s support of partial-birth abortion is akin biblically to child sacrifice.
• Daniel Pipes plays the Muslim card, claiming that Obama wouldn’t get a security clearance if he becomes president.
  
• Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) tells CBS’s “Face The Nation” that Sarah Palin has “really disturbed” the Jewish community in Florida, according to UPI.
  
• Richard Heideman and Steve Grossman face off as surrogates for McCain and Obama in Boston, reports the Boston Globe.
  
• Adam Brickley, one of Sarah Palin’s earliest fans in the lower 48, has gone from being an evangelical Christian to a “messianic Jew,” notes the New Yorker in a Palin profile.
  
• Our daily look at the Florida Jewish vote today comes from the Chicago Tribune.
• The Jewish Press endorses John McCain.
  
• “Family Guy” briefly compared McCain and Palin to Nazis last night, according to Hollywood Today.
  
• Sarah Silverman talks to Katie Couric.

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Courting Pa. Jews

By Lisa Hostein · October 13, 2008

Hillary Rodham Clinton. Joseph Lieberman. Ed Koch. U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky. The campaign biggies are parading in and out of Pennsylvania in an effort not only to convince Jewish voters to support their guy but also to get them to the polls. While much of the media attention is focused on Florida and the Big Schlep, Pennsylvania has its significant share of Jewish voters - and a big contingent of senior citizens as well.

Even as the polls show Obama with a growing lead in Pa., the Jewish outreach effort is intensifying, with the Obama camp especially active. The local media is also highlighting the issue, with the Philadelphia Weekly spotlighting the Jewish vote. (Read below the old stuff on the Big Schlep and get to the analysis of the Philadelphia Jewish community.)
The Jewish Exponent, too, is tracking the local race.

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Swing states target of Jewish outreach this weekend

By Eric Fingerhut · October 10, 2008

With less than a month to go before Election Day, Barack Obama’s campaign is sponsoring Jewish outreach events in three important swing states this weekend – and that doesn’t even include “The Great Schlep.”

At noon at a Philadelphia Jewish community center, Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell (D) and U.S. Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) are among the speakers at an event billed as a discussion on “Senator Barack Obama, Israel and the 2008 election.” The event follows on the heels of a parade of Jewish surrogates who fanned out to speak all day last Sunday, including former New York Mayor Ed Koch, U.S. Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) and Sander Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.)

At 4 p.m. this afternoon in Delray Beach, Fla., the campaign will be providing “Jewish outreach training” at its S. Florida headquarters. While “The Great Schlep” is an independent effort and the Obama campaign is not permitted to coordinate with its sponsor, the Jewish Council for Education and Research, South Florida campaign spokesman Bobby Gravitz said that “we are hoping folks who are travelling this weekend” and in town by this afternoon would be interested in attending. He said Florida Jewish outreach director Halie Soifer would be discussing Obama’s positions on the Middle East, and also conduct a question and answer session.

And on Sunday at 5 p.m., Obama foreign policy adviser Dennis Ross, U.S. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and Carl Levin, again, will be part of what the campaign is calling one of its largest Jewish outreach events of the year in Cleveland.

Recent polls have Obama competitive, and in some cases leading, McCain in all three states – which George W. Bush won in 2000 and 2004. And all three are considered to have Jewish populations large enough to possibly make a difference in an extremely close race.

But not all the Obama activity is in swing states. Koch, U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.) and former U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer will hold a town hall meeting to discuss “Why Obama is best for Israel and America” in Paramus, N.J., a state that is widely considered to be a safe blue state this year.

16 Comments | Share This | barack obama, Florida, Israel, John McCain, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Presidential Race, Uncategorized

Last weekend Pa., this weekend Ohio

By Eric Fingerhut · October 7, 2008

After a big day of Jewish outreach featuring everyone from Ed Koch to Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) to actress Blythe Danner in Pennsylvania last Sunday, the Barack Obama campaign has a major Jewish outreach event scheduled for this Sunday in Cleveland. The 5 p.m. event at Landerhaven is scheduled to include Dennis Ross, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and Levin again, among others. For a schedule of what went down in the Keystone State last Sunday, click here:

11:00am - Congressman Anthony Weiner and Former Congressman and New York City Mayor Ed Koch at Shaare Shamayim in NE Philadelphia (9768 Verree Road Philadelphia, PA)

2:00 pm - Ed Koch at Martin’s Run in Delaware County(11 Martins Run, Media, PA)

2:15 pm - Congressman Anthony Weiner at the Kaiserman JCC (45 Haverford Road, Wynnewood, PA)

4:15 pm - Ed Koch at Brith Sholom (3939 Conshohoken Ave, Philadelphia PA)

4:15 pm - Senator Carl Levin and Congressman Sander Levin at the home of Barbara and Mickey Black (The Barclay Apt 3B, 237 S 18th St, Philadelphia, PA)

5:00 pm - Congressman Anthony Weiner at the home of Steve & Louie Asher (301 N. Latches Lane, Merion Station PA)

5:00 pm - Actress Blythe Danner at the Home of Amy Brenner (254 Biddulph Road Radnor, PA)

7:00 pm - Senator Carl Levin and Congressman Sander Levin at Congregration Shir Ami in Bucks County (101 Richboro Road Newton, PA)

7:00 pm - Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz and Deputy Speaker of the PA House of Representatives Josh Shapiro at The Berman Family Residence (1508 Grasshopper Lane, Gwynedd Valley, PA)

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Democrats putting other issues on faith agenda

By Eric Fingerhut · September 18, 2008

For years, Republicans have been seen as the party of the religious because of the stands its members take on issues such as abortion and gay marriage. The Democrats are trying to change that perception – by expanding the number of issues that are linked to religion and faith.

At a meeting with reporters Thursday morning, a group of Democratic senators laid out some examples. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) pointed to the farm bill as a faith-based issue because it deals with, among other things, feeding the hungry. And she said the G.I. Bill qualifies because it ensures America follows through on its “moral commitments.” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) added climate change and a “responsible energy policy” because they involved “our moral responsibility as it relates to our world.”

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) pointed to children’s health insurance as a faith-based issue, and Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) noted the minimum wage. She said a higher wage might mean some Americans would only have to work two jobs instead of three – and thus have more “time to practice their faith.”

Casey, an anti-abortion Democrat, said that Democrats had been “perceived” as “the secular party” for too long. “I think faith is vitally important to discourse in politics and government,” said Casey. “To deny that is to deny reality. Even as the country recognizes diversity and separation of church and state, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t recognize that faith plays an important role in people’s views.”

While the principle of church-state separation is particularly important to many Jews, Cardin said he doesn’t think the party’s emphasis on faith alienates any Jews. “You can’t confuse the separation of church and state with the commitment toward principles that come out of our religious background,” he told JTA.

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Jewish push polling?

By Ami Eden · September 16, 2008

Some Jewish voters claim they have been the target of anti-Obama push polling aimed at Members of the Tribe, according to the folks operating the new pro-Obama Web site: JewsVote.org. The Associated Press reported incidents in Florida and Pittsburgh:

Jewish voters in Florida and at least one other state are being targeted by a telephone survey tying Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama to Palestinian causes, an advocacy group alleged Monday.

The Jewish Council for Education in Research says at least two women in separate states were push polled, or asked questions intended to influence voters while pretending to take a poll, on Sunday afternoon from a caller who said he was from Research Strategies.

Joelna Marcus says she became uncomfortable when the caller asked if she was Jewish, whether she was Orthodox and how often she attends synagogue.

The caller then asked if Marcus would be influenced if she learned that Obama had donated money to the Palestine Liberation Organization. The caller also asked how she would vote if she learned that someone on the Illinois senator’s staff had close ties to Palestine. ...

Deborah Minden, who lives in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Pittsburgh received a similar call Sunday afternoon. After asking basic demographic information, Minden, 56, said the caller said, “I’m going to ask you some things about Sen. Obama and you tell me if it would make you more or less likely to vote for him.”

The poller then ticked off a list of accusations including that Obama’s church had made anti-Semitic statements and that Obama had met with Hamas leaders.

Jonathan Cohn, of the New Republic, says he received a similar call. And Politico’s Ben Smith says Jewish readers in Philadelphia and New Jersey say they have also been called.

According to Smith, at least one firm is denying that its the operation behind the calls.

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