Steven Kurlander Writes: A Jew changing affiliation to the Republican Party often faces the same stigma as one converting to another religion. So it’s not going to be anytime with the next decade, if ever, that a majority of American Jews who have liberal or independent leanings will switch allegiance to an uber conservative Republican Party.

This ingrained, almost religious loyalty by Jews to the Democratic Party remains so strong that if a Democratic president proclaimed he is anti-Semitic, I doubt whether a majority of Democratic Jews would switch and become Republican.

In an exclusive interview with GestetnerUpdates.com, NYS Assemblyman David Weprin says that loud mouth “dissidents” and vocal “trouble makers” in the Orthodox Community distorted his record and statements, and thus undercut his chances in the NY9 Special Election.

Weprin also noted that he provided “millions of dollars” in funding for Orthodox Jewish organizations to help the poor and the Yeshivas (but apparently didn’t matter in the face of the dissidents).

Press Read More to listen to the audio:

Earlier this morning we reported that according to a Journo from The Atlantic, 317 people voted at the Adelson High School in Nevada which was set up for Orthodox Jewish Voters to participate in the Caucuses once the Shabbos was over. Ron Paul received 58% of that vote.

Many wondered how and why he received this support from Orthodox Jewish Voters, but according to a Blog Post at a Ran Paul forum, Paul activists robo called its supporters and asked them to crash the vote. In simple Yiddish it means: Non-Jewish Paul supporters precipitated in the vote to skew the results of the “Jewish Caucuses.”

I didn’t independently verify if indeed Paul fans showed up to vote for him, but it sure explains why Paul received more than half the vote in a precinct which for weeks was talked about as being exclusively Orthodox Jewish. But regardless the Paul issue, the precinct did not produce anywhere close to the 500 Orthodox Jewish voters that we purported to participate.

(RELATED: Audio Update: Libs and Dems, Not Conservatives, Back Paul in “GOP Primaries“)

The Forward Reports: Republican voters prepared to go to the polls Tuesday in the Florida primary  after a campaign in which the candidates paid scant attention to the Sunshine  State’s 500,000-strong Jewish community.

The two leading candidates, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich spent much of their  time in central and northern Florida and all but ignored the heavily Jewish  communities in south Florida’s Dade and Broward counties.

Rick Santorum, who was far behind in third place in polls, was scheduled to  speak on Monday at a Boca Raton synagogue but had to cancel his appearance after  his daughter fell ill. Ron Paul chose to skip campaigning in Florida  altogether.

While Florida and its large Jewish population are expected to serve as the  ultimate battleground in the presidential race, not much is in play during the  GOP primary. Most of the state’s Jews are Democrats and cannot vote in the GOP  primary. Those who are Republican lean strongly toward Romney, analysts say.

Polls conducted before the Tuesday primary, the first to take place in a  large state, predict an easy win for Romney, who came back from his defeat to  Gingrich in South Carolina to rebuild a double-digit lead in Florida.

Nearly 2 million Florida Republicans are expected to vote in the primary,  with the winner grabbing all of the state’s 50 delegates.

Kaiser Health News Reports: In interviews with nearly a dozen Republican seniors attending the rally in this heavy Jewish retirement area known for golf courses, kosher delis and “early bird” specials, most like Cestari said health care is a key issue, but they acknowledged they knew little about how the law affects them — or about Republicans’ plans to curb Medicare spending.

Wearing buttons such as “Obama … Oy Vey” and “Don’t Believe the Liberal Media,” many of the 700 people at the event said they worried the health law would hurt the economic recovery,  affect their ability to get care and increase  health costs.

“I’m worried about my care being limited and the death panels,” said Anne Lane, 74 of Palm City, Fla. She said wasn’t too familiar with Republicans’ Medicare proposals, though she thinks it’s a good idea to let people on Medicare use health savings accounts to pay their bills.

Lynn Sherrer, 64, said she favors repealing the  law because it will “take $500 billion out of Medicare.” She was not aware that Republican proposals for Medicare leave those cuts in place, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Sherrer said lower Medicare payments to hospitals and insurers will mean less care for patients. “It’s the most important issue,” she said of the health law.

Not everyone felt the same way.

Gary Tuner, 61, of Wellington, Fla. said health care ranks about 7^th on his list of priorities, with the nation’s deficit his top concern. His main concern about the health law is to the individual mandate requiring nearly all Americans to purchase health insurance.

Capital J Reports: Ahead of Tuesday’s Republican presidential primary, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America – the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization – is collaborating with its member synagogues in South Florida to host community forums with the leading candidates’ campaigns.

On Sunday evening, a forum will be held at the Young Israel of Hollywood with leading supporters of Gov. Mitt Romney — former U.S. Senators Norm Coleman and Jim Talent.

On Monday morning, a forum will be held at the Boca Raton Synagogue with candidate former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum.

(An event with former Speaker Gingrich is pending confirmation.)

The Orthodox Union, and its member synagogues are non-partisan charitable organizations that neither endorse candidates for office nor contribute to political campaigns. These forums are an opportunity for members of the Orthodox Jewish community to hear from candidates and to express their views to the candidates. The Orthodox Union has a long history of hosting such forums for incumbents and candidates on a bipartisan basis.

Algemeiner Reports: The  annual Jewish Community Relations Council Congressional Breakfast is an  opportunity for members of the New York Congressional Delegation to  break bread – and munch bagels – with Jewish leaders.  The 2012 edition had a distinctly serious tone. An  overflow audience of more than 300 – religious and political leaders,  public officials and diplomats – listened to a series of concise, fact  filled presentations detailing Congressional activity that will impact  both on community life and international actions, with special  concentration on Israel and Iran related topics.

Presented by the JCRC-NY in conjunction with UJA-Federation, the 33^rd annual meeting was an opportunity to express camaraderie and  admiration, discuss relevant social and political action, remember  history and serve as a forum for discussion of passed and pending  legislation and anticipated effects. JCRC-NY Vice  President Mimi Alperin and Board Members Ester Fuchs and Jonathan  Greenspun chaired the event with Alisa Robbins Doctoroff, Chair of the  Board of UJA-Federation of New York. Jeff Weinstein provided  sponsorship.

Shmuel Rosner Writes: In 2008, 4% of Florida voters were Jewish (3% of all Floridians are Jewish according to PEW), and most of them voted for Obama (the exact percentage is not known). In 2004, 80% of Jewish Floridians voted for John Kerry, while 20% voted for George W. Bush, according to a Solomon Project analysis– the numbers should not be treated as accurate as the number of Jews in each of the polls on which such analysis is based is fairly small.

In 2000, according to this same analysis, 88% of the Jews of Florida voted for the Gore (and Lieberman) ticket, while 12% voted for Bush. In both 2000 and 2004, the Florida Jewish vote was tilted more toward the Democratic candidate than the general Jewish vote.

In 2008, 9% of all Democratic primary voters in Florida were Jewish (58% of them voted for Hillary Clinton, 26% for Obama). In 2004, 10% of Democratic primary voters were Jewish (we don’t know whom they voted for, but nationally most Democratic Jews – 81% – supported John Kerry). The percentage of Jews voting in Republican primaries is much smaller, in fact, very close to the percentage of Jews in the state (this in fact means that Jewish Republicans in Florida are very committed to voting, since they are able to reach the 3% mark even though the vast majority of Jews vote in the Democratic primaries).

AP Via The Republic Reports: Republican Party officials in Nevada have added a special evening caucus session Feb. 4 for Jewish voters marking the Sabbath, which will delay the results from the state’s fifth-in-the-nation presidential nominating contest by several hours.

The Clark County Republican Party said Monday it will hold the evening caucus to accommodate roughly 500 conservative Jewish voters observing the traditional weekly day of worship. The move comes after casino billionaire and Newt Gingrich supporter Sheldon Adelson raised concerns about the Sabbath conflict.

County party spokeswoman Bobbie Haseley told The Associated Press that the move 12 days before the caucus has the blessing of state and national party officials.

The Republican National Committee referred questions to the Nevada GOP, which did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.

Caucus results from Clark County — the Silver State’s most populous county and home to Las Vegas and more than 70 percent of Nevada’s total population — aren’t expected to be released until after the 7 p.m. caucus at a school founded by Adelson and his wife. The majority owners of the world’s largest publicly traded casino company, Las Vegas Sands Corp., are highly active in Jewish causes worldwide.

Sam Stein Reports: A report purporting to show potentially historic levels of support from Jewish voters for Mitt Romney in a general election matchup with Barack Obama appears to be either profoundly flawed or simply fabricated.

Last week, the website Miami Political Buzz Examiner published a story stating that the former Massachusetts governor was “a new political star (of David)” in Florida. A “newly released poll” conducted by the Florida Coalition of Independent Jewish Congregations (FCIJ), the article said, showed that 52 percent of the state’s “registered Jewish voters would support a Romney-led Republican presidential ticket.”

The results, wrote author Jay Schorr, would resemble a “sea change in Florida’s political landscape.” In late September, the Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling found that President Obama would beat Romney by a margin of 78 to 11 percent among Florida Jews.

While Schorr’s piece hadn’t spread widely around the Internet, it was picked up in some corners of the Jewish blogosphere. It was also sent to The Huffington Post by one shocked Floridian and one confounded Democratic operative, who worried that it would feed a narrative about the president having trouble garnering support from Jews.

A tiny scratch beneath the surface reveals multiple problems with the story. For starters, it was impossible to find anyone in Florida’s Jewish community who has actually heard of the Florida Coalition of Independent Jewish Congregations.

“No. I’m sorry, I have never heard of them,” said Carol Brick-Turin, director of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council, in a typical response to inquiries about the group.

A search of the IRS database of non-profit organizations turned up nothing on the FCIJ. Nor did a Lexis-Nexis search of records from the past five years or a search of corporate registrations in the state of Florida. A Google search only turned up Schorr’s article and links to it.

The Huffington Post reached out to Joe Berkofsky, managing director of communications at The Jewish Federations of North America to see if he knew of the organization. “Sorry,” he replied via email, “I have no knowledge of them.”

Schorr, who bills himself as a “nationally renowned, award-winning writer, producer and author,” has at least one book to his credit (“50 Ways to Look Busy At Work – Even When You’re Not”). He responded to a request for comment via email.

“The FCIJ,” he explained, “is a private organization comprised of both religious and secular individuals culled from Jewish houses of worship across Florida. While not a PAC, their agenda seems to be quite political. They are backed by some deep pockets and pretty much operate under the radar. I am not surprised they don’t have a website.”

As for the polling data, Schorr wrote that the numbers were “conducted for internal use” but had been “leaked” through “the Jewish grapevine down here on condition of anonymity.” Schorr acknowledged that he did not know the “statistical methodology” of the poll and wrote that the “margins of error, cross-tabs/contingency tables, etc. were not available for public consumption.”

But because his sources for the story were “impeccable,” he went with it. “The big mahkhers who conducted this poll wield political influence statewide and have a solid track record of polling on Jewish issues,” Schorr wrote.

This statement, naturally, left several other questions unanswered, including regarding why Schorr would run a poll without knowing its methodology and what other work the FCIJ has done. Schorr didn’t respond to a request for follow-up. He ended his first email by apologizing for being unable to “be of more assistance.”

Philly.Com Reports: The state’s nearly 640,000 Jews are just 3.4 percent of Florida’s population. But because they vote in extraordinarily high numbers, they are 6 to 8 percent of Florida’s turnout, says Ira Sheskin, who runs the University of Miami’s Jewish Demography Project.

In this part of Florida, Sheskin estimates Jewish turnout at 95 percent. “Jews aren’t just registered,” he says. “They actually vote.”

The vast majority are Democrats.

Brent Sasley has a summary of how American Jews feel about President Barack Obama and how they will vote in 2012:

American Jews don’t like Obama because they don’t feel him in their kishkes.

Jews always vote Democrat.

They don’t like him because he said Israeli-Palestinian negotiations should be based on the 1967 lines (with agreed land swaps).

They like him because he refused to let the Palestinian bid for statehood pass the UN Security Council.

They don’t like him because of what some administration officials have said about democracy in Israel, and Israel as a source for modern anti-Semitism.

They like him because he’s a liberal, and isn’t Santorum, Gingrich, Paul, or Romney.

The Orthodox sector of the Jewish population is opposed to liberal social policies, and given its increasing size in the community (due to high birthrate) will soon come to change Jewish voting patterns.

The younger generation of non-Orthodox Jews is increasingly more likely to be distressed with Israeli policy toward the Palestinians, and therefore care less about either kishkes or popular perceptions of lack of support.

Big Jewish donors are moving away from Obama.

Big Jewish donors are sticking with Obama.

Did I miss anything?

]]> http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/22/satire-predicting-the-jewish-vote-in-the-wh2012-race/feed/ 0 http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/19/poll-shows-romney-making-inroads-with-floridas-jewish-voters/ http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/19/poll-shows-romney-making-inroads-with-floridas-jewish-voters/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:12:32 +0000 Yossi Gestetner http://gestetnerupdates.com/?p=6727 Examiner Reports: Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, is making considerable  inroads into Florida’s Jewish community according to a newly released poll  conducted by the Florida Coalition of Independent Jewish Congregations  (FCIJ). The poll, released Tuesday, indicates that 52 percent of …

Read more »

Shark Tank Reports: The Chabad of Naples opened their new Jewish Community Center on Sunday to a crowd of about 500.  The inaugural event included invited guests Governor Rick Scott, his wife Ann, Senator Garrett Richter(R), and Congressional candidates Karen Harrington and Trey Radel.  Rabbi Fishel was the master of ceremonies and Governor Scott gave the keynote address.  Scott later toured the center and its preschool facility.

CBN Reports: Republicans Abroad Israel launched a new website to welcome the 2012 U.S. election cycle, the group said in a statement released on Thursday.

The website includes voter registration information and other relevant information.

There are some 300,000 U.S. citizens living in Israel, which makes it one of the largest non-resident U.S. populations, the group says. In the past they have said that the voting population is large enough here to actually have an impact on presidential elections in those key swing states.

While in the U.S. a majority of Jewish voters choose democrats, in Israel a majority of voting Americans vote Republican. Republicans Abroad in Israel is part of the group Republicans Abroad.

According to the Republicans Abroad website, more than six million Americans live overseas “a number larger than the populations of 24 states in the Union.”

TJW Reports: “Of the entire field, Romney has the greatest upside among Jewish voters,” said Jacques Berlinerblau, a professor of Jewish civilization and an expert in religion and politics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. “Of the remaining Republican field, he is the one Jews feel most comfortable with – he’s kind of heimish.”

Although Romney’s Mormon faith was an issue when he ran for the presidency four years ago, it has not been this year. And Berlinerblau said he has detected “an unspoken understanding” between Jews and Muslims: both are “family oriented, professionally successful – and not being white Anglo-Saxons and evangelicals can also bind.”

“Romney is the one candidate, along with [former Utah Gov. John] Huntsman, who can make serious inroads in the Jewish community,” he added. “He is strong on Israel and exudes a kind of statesman-like steadiness that Jews are looking for; he doesn’t shoot from the hip.”

L. Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College in Waterville, Me., agreed that although there is no data on where Jews are headed in the Republican primaries, “Romney is the most likely candidate.”

“He and Huntsman are the least out there on social issues,” he said. “Jews do not go for those considered extreme.”

(Read More)

National Jewish Democratic Council has this post: from The Commercial Appeal:

A congressional redistricting plan being considered this week by the Tennessee legislature would remove all of the major Jewish institutions and much of the Jewish vote from U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen’s 9th District, he said Monday.

Cohen, the first Jewish congressman elected from Tennessee, said the plan draws an ‘appendage’ west from the proposed 8th Congressional District, currently represented by Republican Stephen Fincher, up the Poplar Corridor as far west as The Links at Galloway Golf Course….

‘Nearly every Jewish person in my district would be taken out because the Jewish people in Memphis all live out east,’ Cohen said. ‘There’s a handful in Downtown and Midtown.’

Politically, Cohen said, he wants those voters in his district because he has represented their interests in the state senate and in Congress for 20 years.

‘There’s a commonality of interests from social issues as well as foreign policy where there’s been a connection over the years,’ he said….

Cohen’s district is home to major Jewish congregations such as Temple Israel, the Baron Hirsch Synagogue, Beth Sholom Synagogue, the Jewish Community Center, the Plough Towers retirement home and other concentrations of Jewish voters, Cohen said.

]]> http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/10/gop-redistricting-separates-jstreet-endorsed-jewish-dem-from-jewish-constituents/feed/ 0 http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/09/obamas-jewish-liaison-visited-williamsburg/ http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/09/obamas-jewish-liaison-visited-williamsburg/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:10:54 +0000 Yossi Gestetner http://gestetnerupdates.com/?p=6145 While Jack Lew the Orthodox Jewish White House Budget director was heading to the WH for a promotion to be named Chief of Staff, Obama’s Liaison to the Jewish Community Jarrod Bernstein made a visit to Hasidic stronghold Williamsburg, Brooklyn. …

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There were three winners in the Iowa Republican caucuses: Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and, not far behind them, Ron Paul.

There were also (at least) three takeaways for Jewish observers: foreign policy matters, evangelicals matter — and Ron Paul matters.

The importance of foreign policy in the 2012 presidential race, even in a farm state once known better for the pledges for ethanol subsidies it extracts from candidates, was evident in the speeches following the voting.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and nominative winner — he bested Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, by a mere eight votes — launched his speech with a broadside against President Obama’s Iran policy.

“Iran is about to have nuclear weaponry just down the road,” Romney told his followers. “He said he’d have a policy of engagement. How’s that worked out?”

Santorum’s strong showing — he and Romney split 50 percent of the vote evenly — was credited mostly to his months-long dedication to the state, working every county and making more than 300 appearances.

But Santorum’s strong foreign policy performance in the debates, in which he showed a command of detail stemming from his 12 years in the Senate, also was likely a factor.

In a New York Times profile published Wednesday, Santorum advisers said the candidate started to stress his own hard line on Iran after seeing how it elicited positive responses during his Iowa campaign.

(Read More at JTA)

My following article was posted earlier at The American Thinker:

Sunday,  Sixty Minutes interviewed Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who is  Jewish. The reporter asked him if there is something in the Jewish faith — such  as helping the poor — that pushes Jews to vote for Democrats. The reporter went  on to quote an unnamed blogger who attacked Cantor for “Abandoning the poor and  cutting taxes for the rich… Judaism mandates that the community take care of  those in need.”

The  above statement goes with the assumption that the only way of giving charity is  through government. The set-up of the interview goes with the falsehood that  Republicans are anti-poor, despite the fact that the Republican Congress under  Bush 43  increased spending on some poor-programs twice as fast as did President  Clinton, and despite the fact that Republican lawmakers on average give way more  charity than do Democrats. But this aside, the fact of the matter is that the Conservative way of helping others is in line with the Torah (Old Testament) and  fits with Jewish By-Laws overall:

• In  Egypt, after seven years of wealth and a clear warning by Joseph that seven  hunger years are coming, some people didn’t stack up enough, and/or ran out of  food too fast. Instead of just handing out the harvest that he stored away,  Joseph asked people to ‘pay’ in form of giving up their fields. When people ran  out of fields, Joseph didn’t just hand out checks for the poor. He instead  (created an environment for economic growth. How? He) gave seeds and the masses  needed to work on the fields with the hopes that things will grow and they will  in return have what to eat.
• Once  the grain grew, Joseph didn’t take away fifty percent of it as Government does  today, nor did he make a difference between those who were successful in taking care of the field versus those who lazied around or simply failed. Instead,  everyone needed to pay the government a flat tax of only twenty percent. (The  expected seven hunger years, ended after five years.)
• The  Torah says “Oozoyv Tazoyv Eemoy,” this means that if a Camel falls under the  weight of its load you should help only if the boss himself is ready to  help unload! If he sits on the side and asks you to work, you can walkway! Furthermore, because the load hurts the Camel, you have to help to  unload (again, only help). But to load it back up, you can ask to be paid. If  the boss refuses, you can walk away.
• Jewish  Law calls for people to give ten percent (a tenth) of their net income for  Charity. Anyone who hands out more than twenty percent is called a spender. The  ten percent goes for charity; not for government that over-pays underperforming  workers who run waste-fraud-abuse-filled programs to ‘help’ the  poor.
• The  purist way of charity according to the Jewish By-Laws — is to teach a person a  trait; not to give him money for fifty years in a row.
• Talmud  calls for Congregations — not governments — to collect money before Passover to help the poor. In fact, I don’t recall any place in the Torah, Talmud or  Jewish By-Laws (Shilchun Oorech) that calls for government to take away money  from the rich to give for the poor, certainly not when the poor largely have  flushable bathrooms; heat, water,  electricity, TVs, cell phones and everything else in the  middle.
• A  total of millions — if not billions — of dollars is raised each year from  Jewish philanthropists, and from average workers and from caring community  members to help others. All this is without the Government being involved. No, a  rich person does not give $100,000 in charity just to save $16,000 in taxes (if  — as Warren Buffet claims — the tax rate for the rich is only sixteen  percent). People give charity because they care; because they were raised to  help others. The tax benefit is just a small bonus versus the larger amount  given by the donor.

The  reason why most Jews vote for the Democrats is simple: Most U.S. Jews are  not-religious and many of them are seething with anti-Religion! Thus, the  Democratic Party appears to be the best  home for those Jews. This is one of the reasons why Orthodox Jews tilt towards  the Republican Party. (I explained it in more detail in  this three-minute audio).

Related:

Forward Reports: In its 30 years of existence, Shas has evolved from a marginal ethnic  political group to Israel’s fourth largest party in the Knesset and is today the  unchallenged kingmaker of Israeli politics.

Now, Shas — or in its full name, the Sephardic Torah Guardians Movement — is  attempting to establish a beachhead among American Sephardic Jews and, it hopes,  replicate its success in Israel. On December 4, the group launched its United  States affiliate, American Friends of Shas, based in Brooklyn. The new  organization’s goals are still in flux and, while activists agree its main  mission should be raising the profile of Shas in America, some are also calling  for active fundraising to support the party’s operations in Israel.

Beyond these goals, the affiliate’s founders also hope to unite Sephardic  American Jews under the leadership of Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, Shas’s founder and  spiritual leader, who is revered as the most important rabbinic authority in the  Sephardic world. American Friends of Shas activists believe that such a  consolidation of leadership could help elevate the standing of Orthodox  Sephardic Jews, who often feel left out of the Ashkenazi-dominated American  Jewish organizational world.

“Associating with a very powerful leader and a very powerful organization can  give us a sense of pride,” said Rabbi David Algaze, who chaired the founding  meeting of American Friends of Shas. Rabbi Algaze added that while he did not  believe there is prejudice against Sephardic Jews in the U.S., there is a “subconscious bias” that has made members of the community almost entirely  absent from the Jewish communal leadership.

Calls to join the new organization were posted in recent weeks on billboards  in Orthodox neighborhoods in Brooklyn and New Jersey. The official launch took  place, as first reported by the Jewish Star, a Long Island-based newspaper, with  Rabbi Ovadia Yossef’s personal aide, Zvi Hakak, greeting participants on behalf  of the 91-year-old sage. “The dream,” Hakak said in the meeting, “is to raise  the image of Sephardic Jews.”

The group plans to incorporate as a tax-exempt charitable organization.

The driving force behind the initiative, Israeli Knesset member Nissim Zeev,  was among the original founders of the Shas party in Israel.

“Our main goal was to have a channel in which Shas’s political views could be  expressed in America,” Zeev told the Forward in a December 13 phone interview. “It is also very important for us to unite Sephardic communities in the U.S.  around the party and around our rabbi, Ovadia Yossef.”

Shas started off in Israel as a social-issue party, focused on the needs of  its key constituency — Sephardic Orthodox Israelis, many of whom were from the  struggling classes in Israeli society. Shas established its own  government-funded school network, which gained marked popularity in poor  Sephardic towns. This, in turn, increased the party’s popular support.

The party initially held centrist views on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict  and supported the Oslo Accords. But Shas has since moved to the right. As a  member of the ruling government coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin  Netanyahu’s Likud Party, the party has opposed any freeze in Israeli settlement  activity in the occupied West Bank.

(Read More)

Uriel Heilma at JTA Writes: It’s not easy being a political conservative in the most liberal of Jewish religious denominations.

Just ask the 40 or so people among the more than 5,000 attendees at last week’s biennial conference of the Union for Reform Judaism who showed up for a session on political conservatism.

“We didn’t know if anyone would come,” said Laurie Silber, a synagogue president from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who organized the session. Only four names appeared ahead of time on the online sign-up sheet.

“When I saw this session on the schedule, I thought it was a joke,” one attendee said. “But I’m glad there’s one or two of us.”

For participants, the lunchtime meeting on the conference’s second day served as something of a griping session, with audience member after audience member standing to blow off steam about the liberal bias among Reform Jews.

But for Reform leaders it was part of a broader effort to project an image of the movement as nonpartisan, as well as to ensure political balance in a conference that featured President Obama as a keynote speaker.

In addition to the lunchtime conversation, which was organized at Silber’s request, the biennial featured a plenary speech by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and a debate between conservative William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard, and Rabbi David Saperstein, head of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, titled “Liberalism, Conservatism: Which Better Furthers Jewish Values and Jewish Interests?”

Nonpartisanship long has been a challenge in a movement so closely identified with signature Democratic positions such as women’s reproductive rights, gay equality and social welfare issues. The Religious Action Center, the Reform movement’s advocacy arm in Washington, takes decidedly liberal stances on issues from health care reform to wars overseas. And in his introduction to Obama’s speech, the movement’s outgoing president, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, noted that the president has been a champion for many of the values the Reform movement holds dear, including health care reform and gay rights.

“We stand for economic justice, for a woman’s right to choose, for protecting the vulnerable and the needy, for justice in our land and peace across the globe — the very battles that have been at the center of your vision as president,” Yoffie said.

Not all Reform Jews esteem the same values, however.

“There’s an idea that Reform Judaism must be liberal on every front, and I don’t think that’s true,” said Rabbi Jonathan Siger of the Houston-area Congregation Jewish Community North, in Spring, Texas.

“Tikkun olam doesn’t mean giving away money,” said one participant in the session on conservatism.

“Isn’t there something in the Jewish tradition about people helping themselves?” asked another.

“We can all be for tikkun olam if it doesn’t mean paying for it,” said a third.

More than any other issue, however, participants complained of what they described as the hypocrisy of liberal Reform Jews who preach pluralism and tolerance while disparaging or silencing conservative voices.

“It’s very hard to have a civil discourse,” said a past president of a Reform synagogue in Los Angeles. “They assume everyone is liberal. At least talk and listen.”

A woman from Lehigh Valley, Pa., chimed in, “Trying to even have a discussion is impossible because they will not listen to the facts.”

One man described the attitude of Reform Jews toward political conservatives as “xenophobia.”

In an interview with JTA, Silber recalled posting some conservative comments on a listserv of synagogue presidents and then getting shut out by vocally liberal participants who complained that she was making the discussion too political.

Most of the participants at the Dec. 15 conference session did not seem to be dyed-in-the-wool conservatives. Many proclaimed themselves fiscal conservatives but social liberals. A physician from Fort Worth, Texas, talked about how he voted for Obama because he was concerned that John McCain as president might succumb to melanoma and leave the Oval Office in the hands of Sarah Palin. Another lamented what he called the hijacking of the Republican Party by political extremists. And not one person mentioned any of the Republican candidates for president during the freewheeling discussion.

“My conservatism is economic, in terms of smaller government, individual rights, relationship with Israel,” Siger told JTA. “Socially I’m decidedly progressive.”

A few session participants said that Israel was the key issue that had thrust them into the conservative camp, at least within the Reform movement.

“I have long been unhappy with the debate about Israel in the Reform movement,” said Rabbi David Kaufman of Temple B’nai Jeshurun in Des Moines, Iowa. A founder of a group called We Are for Israel, Kaufman was one of five rabbis at the session.

“There are a lot more politically conservative Republican Jews than people think, especially when it comes to Israel,” he said.

But when someone at the session questioned the bona fides of the incoming president of the movement, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, noting Jacobs’ past affiliations with the New Israel Fund and J Street, Kaufman came to Jacobs’ defense.

“I wouldn’t worry about Rick,” Kaufman said. “He’s good on Israel.”

When The Weekly Standard’s Kristol made a surprise visit to the session, he credited Jacobs for including him, Cantor and Natan Sharansky – a politically conservative former refusenik who is now the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel — on the biennial program.

But there was no mistaking the fact that at least at this conference on the outskirts of Washington, political conservatives were a tiny minority.

“It occurs to me,” Siger said, “that we are the 1 percent.”

(Audio Below) The simple answer to the question why Jews vote for Democrats despite Republicans being stronger on Israel, is this: Most Jews in the United Sates are non-Observant and have nothing with religion. Therefore, the Democratic Party seems to be a perfect match. For this same reason, Orthodox Jews who are more concerned with God, family, values and morals tend to vote Republican.

As for the issues of Israel… Well, a Jew whose Judaism is confined to Latkes on Hanukkah and Matzo during Passover, is less likely to know, care much or feel any connection to Israel. This would apply to most Jews in the United States as most American Jews are not religious. No, I am not saying that non-Observant
Jews don’t care for Israel. But yes, I am saying you are less likely to find Israel-caring Jews among the non-Observant class.

Furthermore, even among Jews who care for Israel, it is still not a priority in their day-to-day life, barring of course any major flare-ups in the Middle East. This was proven by a Siena poll taken before the NY-9 special election, where voters were given the option to name one issue as most important to them: Only seven percent in a district comprised thirty percent of (Orthodox) Jews named Israel as THE most important issue to them, while a total sixty percent in the poll picked economic issues as their priority. With Israel out of the way, it comes back to economics (depending which election of course), where the Democrats historically fared better than Republicans.

So… 1) Since being non-Observant is in-line with the ideology of Democrats; 2) since Israel is not much of an issues to a majority of U.S. Jews, and 3) since Democrats tend to have the upper hand on economic issues, you get election results where 70% overall U.S. Jews vote for the Democrats. But for Orthodox Jews 1) to whom being religious is the basis of their education; 2) to whom Israel is largely important; and 3) to whom the Democrats’ policies of pushing people onto government assistance didn’t solve their economic issues and problems, they will logically vote Republican in strong numbers, as seen time and again in recent years where more and more in the orthodox community have grown tired with the Democrats on economic issues.

Andrea Stone a the Huffington Post Reports: When Newt Gingrich recently called Palestinians an “invented” people and refused to take it back, everyone from the liberal advocacy group J Street to the neoconservative Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) pushed back.