Posted on 12/07/2002 5:14:43 AM PST by SJackson
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?
Alan Skorski has been a pro-Israel activist at Wayne State University in Detroit and a Republican candidate for Congress from Long Island. He is currently engaged in bringing the Republican message to Jewish voters. He can be contacted via e-mail at: askorski@optonline.net
No no no no!!! Look this was a great article and I agreed with much of what was said HOWEVER its wrong of the author to insinuate that voting for the GOP is a mitzvah or a good thing to do as a Jew. How about he stick to the campaign trails and leave God out of it. It irritated me when LIEberman did it and I don't appreciate it when the author does it.
"The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) applauds the historic Republican victory in this mid-term election, in which the GOP added seats to its majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and gained control of the Senate."
Senator-elect Norm Coleman is an RJC member.
Spot on assessment. I've been wondering the same thing. Especially after the political sex that Willie and Hillie Clinton had with them.
The point being: it's either a good thing or a bad thing. So the inevitable question is: if you vote Republican is that a "bad thing" to do? Obviously it is not although to Democrats, leftists, Buchannites, etc. they would suggest it is.
I don't see your logic. We consider acts as good, bad or indifferent. We do things from a moral perspective hopefully with the good and God's approbation. If you're a Christian, which I am, I obviously would say that voting for a neo-nazi party (if it existed) was bad. Or voting for a Marxist party was bad. The author is merely stating that voting Republican can be considered a good. What is the problem about being informed from our religious perspective about the morality of an act?
You seem to be a very devout person and I was wondering what you might make of a Sunday School lesson I had last week, on Saul and Samuel (a little off topic I know, but something you have written rings a bell.)
After Saul had killed the Amelikites, instead of killing the livestock, he prepared to offer it to G-d. G-d told Samuel, "Look, he is building a monument to himself." And what followed was G-d's rejection of Saul, with the words: "I desire obedience, not sacrifice"
My teacher pointed out that the "sacrifices" Saul intended cost him nothing. He was sacrificing other people's cattle. And the class entered into a heated debate on the "good" of tax funded social programs.
Any thoughts?
Fair enough criticism on the debasing issue. On the other hand it's quite unecessary nor particularly desirable to fragment ones existence into the "secular" and "religious". Indeed, I'm suggesting to you that if you're a practicing Jew or Christian you have the Kantian equivalent of the categories of understanding for the proper understanding of the phenomena of the world including the phenomena of moral acts.
A really old Ford?
The saying is "what would Jesus do?"
Although many of these ideas are (and have been) stated by many of us here (and in our personal relationships) it is great to see them so well stated in a Jewish publication. I only hope more conservative (in attitude, if not in votes) Jews have an opportunity to read it. I'll do my part by forwarding it to a few.
In addition, I sent the following words of support to the author who, by taking a step out in front, has earned whatever encouragement that can be offered:
I just read your article (from the Jewish Press) which was made available on Free Republic (home of many wonderful Jewish conservatives). As one of 4 (including my wife) Republican Jewish members in a congregation/population of 250, I found your thoughts refreshing and well stated. The only regrets I had were that you didn't voice the hypocrisy of gun control (I guess I will have to leave that to JPFO, but I'm sure you could be another fine voice in the wind).
I think I understand your thinking (kind of like W referring to himself as a "compassionate" conservative which many of us feel to be redundant. BUT, you have to consider the audience in both cases. This is a Jewish publication targeted at Orthodox Jews (circulation 500k, which has a readership that (assuming it has a broadband NY Jewish readership) more than likely votes 80%+ Democrat. It is an audience
(including a Reform Rabbi I knew who thinks that conserving energy by using a water heater blanket, low flow water controls, power limiting disks for light fixztures, flourescent lamp alternatives for incandescents, etc is a Mitzvah! But I digress.)
that votes on feelings (aka guilt-and boy do we know guilt) and tradition (and let's face it, voting D is more traditional than thoughtful for many of them) and the greatest tradition for Jews is the Mitzvot we are taught and learn from Torah.
God out of it. It irritated me when LIEberman did it
Gore USED Lieberman and Jewish people, just as the Dems always use them (and the blacks). Lieberman was chosen BECAUSE of who/what he was. They chose to "announce" that he was Jewish TO GET the religious vote. I never knew (to this day) a public occasion where Lieberman expressed his Orthodoxy by wearing a kippah. IMO, however, Alan Skorski, is not using it for votes, but rather for identity - it IS who he IS. Now, if he in fact wears a kippah only when campaigning, and not as normal wear, then, indeed, he IS "using" his religion for votes and, like you, I disagree with that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.