Recently there has been a spate of articles in The Jewish Press and other publications regarding Jewish voters and our relationship with evangelical Christians and the Republican and Democratic parties.
I happen to have a rather personal perspective on the matter as an Orthodox Jew who earlier this year ran for Congress on the Republican and Conservative lines.
When I began campaigning I made a commitment to wear my yarmulke at all times. I felt it was important for voters to knew exactly who and what they were getting as their potential representative.
I also believed it was important to send a message that the Republican party is a party that accepts and supports all people regardless of race or religion. The latter point was especially crucial given the rampant speculation about whether Sen. Joe Lieberman will become in 2004 the first Orthodox Jewish major-party presidential candidate.
Why was it so crucial? Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: Sen. Lieberman was picked as Al Gore’s running mate in 2000 for one reason only: to make the Democratic party kosher. After eight years of Bill Clinton using the Oval Office as his personal frat house the Democrats firmly intended in the words of a party strategist to take G-d back from the Republican party.
I’m sure G-d appreciates being used as a political football. At any rate while many Jews in the country were euphoric about the prospects of a Jewish vice-president the senator was working on his balancing act between being a faithful Jew and a good Democrat. Whether it was groveling to anti-Semites like Congresswoman Maxine Waters for the support of the Congressional Black Caucus or coming out strongly for abortion rights Lieberman was slowly moving away from his obligations and priorities as an Orthodox Jew.
Lieberman was never called upon to explain to the Jewish community why he personally brought PLO advocate and Arafat loyalist Jim Zogby into the White House to meet with President Clinton. Nor did the senator explain how he and Gore would have handled the Middle East crisis in light of the fact that Zogby also served as an adviser to the Gore-Lieberman campaign.
By contrast nobody from the Republican party ever asked or suggested that I somehow tone down my Jewishness. In fact there were a number of people who told me how impressed they were that I would wear my yarmulka and told me to never take it off. These words of support came from non-Jews.
One of my top priorities was and still is to bring more Jews particularly Torah-observant Jews into the Republican party. It is a natural shidduch. As a community and as a people we believe strongly in the importance of family hard work ethics support for one another respect for our fellow man and the belief that every individual in this country has the ability to succeed. Our values come from the belief that what makes America great are the religious values on which it was founded.
What do the Democrats stand for? At a 2000 Democratic primary debate candidates Gore and Bradley actually battled it out over who was more pro-abortion. (Gore who earlier in his political career said that abortion was arguably the same thing as taking a human life is now so gung-ho on the other side of the issue that he received the enthusiastic endorsement of NARAL and other pro-abortion organizations.)
Then of course there was the proud moment at the Democratic National Convention when delegates booed and hissed the Boy Scouts. Why the Boy Scouts? Because their leadership has been outspoken about the problems of having openly homosexual men as their scout masters.
What exactly do Jews find so attractive about the Democratic party? Is it the party’s condemnation of anti-Semitism? Where were Democrats during the Crown Heights riots? The only visible Democrats I saw who were unequivocal in their condemnation of the Dinkins administration and black community leaders were Assemblyman Dov Hikind and former mayor Ed Koch.
Should Jews be enamored with the Democrat leadership that ran primary challenges against incumbent Jewish congressmen Steven Solarz and Eliot Engel? Should we be grateful to the party whose two most recent presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton far surpassed any other American president in putting pressure on Israel to make dangerous territorial concessions?
Do Jews appreciate the chilling fact that any Democrat candidate running statewide in New York must go through Al Sharpton if he or she expects to win? Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe has come right out and said Any Democrat who attacks Al Sharpton is no longer welcome in our party.
Not long ago the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) took out a full page ad in the Jewish Week giving President Bush an F on his record and warning of the supposed threat he represented to the Jewish community.
What precisely had Bush done to earn an F and be castigated as out of step with the Jewish community ? He vetoed the Kyoto Treaty ? the same treaty that every Democrat in the Senate rejected when Bill Clinton was in office. President Bush is also pro-life as is our Torah. Yet the NJDC’s Ira Forman believes that Jewish voters would hold their nose before they’d vote Republican.
As for the recent concern voiced by Democrats over the Jewish community’s growing ties with pro-Israel evangelical Christians it is a very curious concern indeed. As an Orthodox Jew who prays three times a day and observes Halacha am I really supposed to be concerned that once Mashiach comes there are people who believe they will be able to persuade me that Hashem has a son?
Am I supposed to reject the friendship of the religious Right and accept the friendship of the religious and secular Left ? which may not want to convert me later but sure stands against me now on nearly every issue I hold dear?
If the Anti-Defamation League’s Abe Foxman wants to monitor anti-Semitism here and around the world more power to him. But he and other liberal organizational Jews are in no position to pontificate to us on what we do or do not have in common with Jerry Falwell and the religious Right.
One other observation that needs to be made: Almost every news outlet and media commentator ? in print and on radio television and the Internet ? with a Republican and right-wing bent is also hawkishly pro-Israel (New York Post Wall Street Journal National Review Weekly Standard Alan Keyes Sean Hannity Rush Limbaugh George Will Cal Thomas etc.)
On the other hand those news outlets with the most pronounced Democratic and left-wing bias also have a clear and consistent pro-Palestinian bias (New York Times Newsday Village Voice The Nation CNN etc.)
Do we as a people want to align ourselves with a party whose platform is consistent with halachic values and teachings ? or with a party that takes its marching orders from Barbara Streisand and Alec Baldwin?
Ira Forman suggests that Jews have to hold their noses when voting Republican. My question is how did Jews like him vote for Clinton without holding theirs?