May 22, 2008
Many Florida Jews Express Doubts on Obama
By Jodi Kantor
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. =97 At the Aberdeen Golf and Country Club on Sunday,
the fountains were burbling, the man-made lakes were ****ning, and
****rley Weitz and Ruth Grossman were debating why Jews in this gated
neighborhood of airy retirement homes feel so much trepidation about
Senator Barack Obama.
=93The people here, liberal people, will not vote for Obama because of
his attitude towards Israel,=94 Ms. Weitz, 83, said, lingering over
brunch.
=93They=92re going to vote for McCain,=94 she said.
Ms. Grossman, 80, agreed with her friend=92s conclusion, but not her
reasoning.
=93They=92ll pick on the minister thing, they=92ll pick on the wife, but
the=
major issue is color,=94 she said, quietly fingering a coffee cup. Ms.
Grossman said she was thinking of voting for Mr. Obama, who is leading
in the delegate count for the nomination, as was Ms. Weitz.
But Ms. Grossman does not tell the neighbors. =93I keep my mouth shut,=94
she said.
On Thursday, Mr. Obama will court Jewish voters with an appearance at
a synagogue in Boca Raton, Fla. A longtime Democratic constituency
with a consistently high turnout rate, Jews are im****tant to his
general election hopes, particularly in New York, which he expects to
win; in California and New Jersey, which he must keep out of
Republican hands; and, most crucially, here in Florida, where Jews
make up around 5 percent of voters.
This is the most haunted state on the electoral college map for
Democrats, the one they lost by hundreds of votes and a Supreme Court
decision in 2000, and again in 2004.
=93The fate of the world for the next four years,=94 mused Rabbi Ruvi New
as his Sunday morning Kabbalah & Coffee class dispersed in East Boca
Raton.
=93It=92s all going to boil down to a few old Jews in Century Village,=94
he=
added, referring to a nearby retirement community.
Jews, of course, are just one of the many constituencies Mr. Obama
must persuade: Latinos, women, working-class whites and independents
are vital as well. Thanks in part to enthusiasm from younger Jews, he
won 45 percent of the Jewish vote in the primaries (not counting the
disputed ones in Florida and Michigan), a respectable showing against
a New York senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
But in recent presidential elections, Jews have drifted somewhat to
the right. Because Mr. Obama is relatively new on the national stage,
his r=E9sum=E9 of Senate votes in sup****t of Israel is short, as is his
list of high-profile visits to synagogues and delis. So far, his
overtures to Jews have been limited; aside from a few speeches and
interviews, he has left most of it to surrogates.
American Jews hold two competing views of Mr. Obama, said Rabbi David
Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in
Wa****ngton. First, there is Obama the scholar, the social justice
advocate, the defender of Israel with a close feel for Jewish concerns
garnered through decades of intimate friend****ps. In this version, Mr.
Obama=92s race is an asset, Rabbi Saperstein said.
The second version is defined by the controversy over his former
pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., worries about Mr. Obama=92s
past associations and questions about his sup****t for Israel.
=93It=92s too early to know how they will play out,=94 Rabbi Saperstein
said.
Alan M. Dershowitz, a professor at Harvard Law School, said he had
been deluged with questions from Jews about the race, especially about
what to think of Mr. Obama. =93I have gotten hundreds of e-mails asking
me, =91Who should we vote for?=92 =94 he said. Mr. Dershowitz, who
sup****ts
Mrs. Clinton, says he tells voters that Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton and
Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, are all pro-
Israel and to reject false personal attacks on Mr. Obama.
Because of a dispute over moving the date of the state=92s primary, Mr.
Obama and the other Democratic candidates did not campaign in Florida.
In his absence, novel and exotic rumors about Mr. Obama have
flourished. Among many older Jews, and some younger ones, as well, he
has become a conduit for Jewish anxiety about Israel, Iran, anti-
Semitism and race.
Mr. Obama is Arab, Jack Stern=92s friends told him in Aventura. (He=92s
not.)
He is a part of Chicago=92s large Palestinian community, suspects Mindy
Chotiner of Delray. (Wrong again.)
Mr. Wright is the godfather of Mr. Obama=92s children, asserted Violet
Darling in Boca Raton. (No, he=92s not.)
Al Qaeda is backing him, said Helena Lefkowicz of Fort Lauderdale
(Incorrect.)
Michelle Obama has proven so hostile and argumentative that the
campaign is keeping her silent, said Joyce Rozen of Pompano Beach.
(Mrs. Obama campaigns frequently, drawing crowds in her own right.)
Mr. Obama might fill his administration with followers of Louis
Farrakhan, worried Sherry Ziegler. (Extremely unlikely, given his
denunciation of Mr. Farrakhan.)
South Florida is =93the most concentrated area in the country in terms
of misinformation=94 about Mr. Obama, said Representative Robert Wexler,
Democrat of Florida, the co-chairman of the Obama campaign in the
state. His surrogates can put these fears to rest, Mr. Wexler said, by
simply repeating the facts about Mr. Obama =97 his correct biography,
his sup****t for Israel, his positions on other im****tant issues.
But the resistance toward Mr. Obama appears to be rooted in something
more than factual misperception; even those with an accurate
understanding of Mr. Obama share the hesitations. In dozens of
interviews, South Florida Jews questioned his commitment to Israel =97
even some who knew he earns high marks from the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee, which lobbies the United States government on
behalf of Israel.
=93You watch George Bush for a day, and you know where he stands,=94 said
Rabbi Jonathan Berkun of the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center.
Many here suspect Mr. Obama of being too cozy with Palestinians, while
others accuse him of having Muslim ties, even though they know that
his father was born Muslim and became an atheist, and that Mr. Obama
embraced Christianity as a young man. In Judaism, religion is a fixed
identity across generations.
=93His father was a Muslim and you can=92t take that out of him,=94 said
Ms.=
Chotiner, 51, who said she would still vote for Mr. Obama, out of
Democratic loyalty. =93Do I have very strong reservations? Yes, I do,=94
she said.
Several interviewees said they had reservations about Mr. Obama=92s
stated willingness to negotiate with Iran =97 whose nuclear ambitions
and Holocaust-denying president trigger even starker fears among Jews
than intifada uprisings and suicide bombings.
American Jews are by no means uniformly opposed to negotiations with
Iran, the leaders of several Jewish groups said, but there is no
consensus, and everyone fears that the wrong choice could lead to
calamity.
Israelis fear Iran =93could be the first suicide nation, a nation that
would destroy itself to destroy the Jewish nation,=94 Mr. Dershowitz
said.
Some voters even see parallels between Mr. Obama=92s foreign policy
positions and his choice of pastor =97 in both cases, a tendency to
venture too close to questionable characters.
=93The fundamentals of meeting with Iran are the same as the
fundamentals of meeting with Rev. Wright,=94 said Joe Limansky, 69, of
Boca Raton.
Other voters called Mr. Obama=92s endorsement by the Rev. Jesse Jackson
problematic, because Mr. Jackson once called New York
=93Hymietown=94 (even though he later apologized) and has made other
comments offensive to Jews.
Some of the resistance to Mr. Obama=92s candidacy seems just as rooted
in anxiety about race as in anxiety about Israel. At brunch in Boynton
Beach, Bob Welstein, who said he was in his 80s, said so bluntly. =93Am
I semi-racist? Yes,=94 he said.
Decades earlier, on the west side of Chicago, his mother was mugged
and beaten by a black assailant, he said. It was =93a beautiful Jewish
neighborhood=94 =97 until black residents moved in, he said.
In speeches to Jewish groups, aides said, Mr. Obama will stress the
bonds between the two groups, noting how Jewish civil rights workers
were killed alongside a black one in Mississippi in 1964. But the
relation****p between the two outsider groups whose fortunes took
different turns has also been bitter, said Hasia Diner, a professor of
history at New York University.
Jews, who have long considered themselves less racially prejudiced
than other Americans, have been especially wounded by black anti-
Semitism, she said, which may help explain why so many Florida voters
were incensed about Mr. Obama=92s member****p in a church whose magazine
gave an award to Mr. Farrakhan.
Jack Stern, 85, sitting alone at an outdoor caf=E9 in Aventura on
Sunday, said he was no racist. When he was liberated from a
concentration camp in 1945, black American soldiers were kinder than
white ones, handing out food to the emaciated Jews, he said.
Years later, after he opened a bakery in Brooklyn, =93I got disgusted,
because they killed Jews,=94 he said, citing neighborhood crimes
committed by African-Americans. =93I shouldn=92t say it, but it is what it
is,=94 said Mr. Stern, who vowed not to vote for Mr. Obama.
As in nearly every other voting group, sup****t for Mr. Obama is
divided by age =97 and Jews in Florida are on average older than Jews in
other states. Half of Broward County=92s Jews are over 59, and half of
those in Palm Beach County are over 70, said Ira Sheskin, a
demographer at the University of Miami.
Toting a chaise lounge to Delray Beach on Sunday, Samantha Poz****, 21,
said that, like her friends, she would vote for Mr. Obama. As for
Jewish leaders, =93I never really follow any of those people anyway,=94
she said from behind dark sungl*****.
=93Aunt Claudie will kill you!=94 hissed her mother, Linda Poz****, 47, who
said she would vote for Mr. McCain.
Younger Jews have grown up in diverse settings and are therefore less
likely to be troubled by Mr. Obama=92s associations than their elders,
said Rabbi Ethan Tucker, 32, co-founder of a Jewish learning
organization in Manhattan and the stepson of Senator Joseph I.
Lieberman of Connecticut. Rabbi Tucker said he had given money to Mr.
Obama and would vote for him in the fall. =93If association was the
litmus test of identity, everyone would be a hopeless mishmash of
confusion, or you=92d have no friends,=93 he said.
Senator Lieberman is expected to spend plenty of time in front of
Jewish audiences, in Florida and elsewhere. A Democrat turned
independent, an Orthodox Jew and one of Mr. McCain=92s closest friends,
Mr. Lieberman will promote Mr. McCain=92s strong national security
r=E9sum=E9 and centrist stances.
Until now, Mr. Obama=92s efforts to win over Jewish voters have been low-
profile. He made a speech to Aipac, the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee, shortly after declaring his candidacy, but for months
afterward, he concentrated his energies on Iowa and New Hamp****re, not
exactly hotbeds of Judaic life. Even as the primaries in New York, New
Jersey and California approached, Mr. Obama left most of his outreach
to intermediaries who met with small groups of community leaders.
Throughout his career, Mr. Obama has enjoyed close ties to Jews,
including various employers, law school buddies, wealthy donors on the
north side of Chicago who backed his early political career, and the
many Jews in the Hyde Park community where he lives. This may account
for some of Mr. Obama=92s apparent incredulity at the way some Jewish
voters view him.
=93I=92ve been in the foxhole with my Jewish friends, so when I find on
the national level my commitment being questioned, it=92s curious,=94 he
said recently in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg on
theatlantic.com.
Now the half-Kenyan-by-way-of-Hawaii candidate, who only recently
completed a beer-and-bowling tour to impress blue-collar
Midwesterners, has committed more fully to showing off his inner Jew.
He recently made a surprise speech at the Israeli Embassy in
Wa****ngton, and, in the interview with Mr. Goldberg, he told stories
about a long-lost Jewish summer camp counselor who taught him about
Israel and recalled reading Leon Uris and Philip Roth, arguably
opposite poles of American-Jewish fiction.
Aides say Mr. Obama will spend as much time in South Florida as
possible in the coming months. His aides believe that the negative
rumors floating around about him are mere =93noise,=94 as one put it, and
have had little impact.
His aides also expressed confidence that when Mr. Obama officially
becomes the nominee, the Democratic Party, including its many
prominent Jews, will put their full force behind his efforts in
Florida.
In anticipation, Mr. Obama has lined up surrogates like State
Representative Dan Gelber, the House minority leader, and Mr. Wexler,
both of whom are Jewish. Mr. Wexler said he would try to convert
voters one mah-jongg table at a time, with town-hall meetings in the
card rooms of high-rise condominiums and articles in community
newspapers.
=93Many of the political leaders in Palm Beach and Broward County were
at my son=92s bris,=94 he said.
Mr. Wexler said he had constituents who voted for Al Smith, the first
Catholic presidential nominee, in 1928, =93and they=92ve never voted for a
Republican since.=94
=93They are not going to vote for Senator John McCain,=94 he added.
Still, Mr. Wexler admits, he has not yet been able to persuade his in-
laws to vote for Mr. Obama.
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