Naomi Zeveloff writes the following in the Forward: In Texas, Republican state officials have recently gone to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend their plan to break up a heavily minority state Senate district. At the same time, in New York, state Republicans are reportedly pushing a plan to consolidate another minority — Brooklyn Orthodox Jews — in just such a district.

It’s the season of political redistricting, and nationwide, Republican and Democratic leaders are deep into their once-in-a-decade jockeying over the drawing of political maps. In this process, ethnic neighborhoods are often jigsaw puzzle pieces, liable to be broken up and reassembled in myriad ways, depending on their political leanings, and on which party controls the state legislature that, in many cases, controls the redistricting process.

But in New York, the prominence of Jews in this process is striking.

This time around, Republican leaders see a chance to bolster their slim majority in the state’s Senate by pushing for a Jewish majority Senate district in South Brooklyn.

No less noteworthy, Orthodox Jewish leaders themselves are advocating for the creation of such a district, which would encompass the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Boro Park in addition to other areas.

In recent months, Orthodox leaders in New York have been vociferously asking for majority Jewish districts in the state legislature and in Congress. Fed up with splintered representation, they say they want fewer elected officials who will be more responsive to their highly particular needs: namely, support for private schools and financial grants to not-for-profits groups serving the Orthodox community.

“We are not saying it has to be one district or two districts or three districts,” said Shmuel Lefkowitz, vice president for community services at Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox umbrella group. “We are saying that six Senate seats and five congressional seats is too much. Our influence is diluted.”

Lefkowitz was one of several individuals who made the case for Jewish majority districts at a September 20 public hearing of the New York legislative redistricting task force, which will likely release a draft of a redistricting map before the end of December. In an interview with the Forward, Lefkowitz said that his organization is looking to elect to office not Republicans per se, but officials who would “serve our needs best.”

Yet according to an October 3 editorial in the Orthodox newspaper Hamodia, it is not just their perceived economic needs as a group that the Orthodox want addressed. Politicians from both parties have shown themselves able to address those kinds of demands. It is their social views, too, that need representation, the editorial stated. And those views tend to break down based on party lines.

The successful campaign to legalize same-sex marriage in New York this year appears to have been a catalyst. Agudath Israel lobbied strongly to stop the bill. But five of the six state senators representing South Brooklyn’s Orthodox community voted in favor of it. The only one to vote against it — Martin Golden — is a Republican.

“The result of this fragmentation is that Congress and the state Senate may be sensitive to the larger Jewish electorate in these districts, giving wholehearted support to Israel, for instance, but less so to the issues that are important to religious Jews,” the Hamodia editorial stated. “The assault on family values that we witnessed this summer sailed through the state legislature with hardly a whimper of protest from the state senators who represent the Orthodox Jews in South Brooklyn.”

Meir Wikler, a Boro Park native and a self-described “squeaky wheel” for Jewish redistricting, also spoke at the task force meeting, in favor of the idea. In an interview with the Forward, Wikler said that an Orthodox district would “not necessarily” go Republican. But he added: “By and large, politically our community could be categorized as conservative, and many of the elected officials that represent our community are more of the liberal bent. And this certainly doesn’t reflect our views.”

Republican interest in a Jewish district was first reported by the New York Daily News in late November. The paper revealed that Republican Senate Majority leader Dean Skelos had sought out New York City Deputy Comptroller Simcha Felder to run as a Republican in a “super ‘Jewish district.’” Felder, a Democrat, reportedly told Skelos that he would consider changing parties to run for the seat. Felder declined an interview with the Forward.

The Orthodox push for a Jewish district appears to mimic the efforts of other ethnic minorities, which lobby for political districts that keep their neighborhoods intact. “I think what we are seeing here is the rise of more identity politics in this country,” said Samuel Abrams, a political scientist at Sarah Lawrence College. “We are seeing time and time again, not just in New York, that every group, regardless of how you cut it, whether it is a racial group or a religious group or an ethnic group, has called for increased identity representation.”

But in the case of Orthodox Jews, the push for an explicitly Jewish district actually puts them at odds with most of their fellow Jews. According to Steven M. Cohen, a sociologist at the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at New York University’s Wagner School, Orthodox Jews are unique in wanting to have Jewish majority districts.

“Generally, Orthodox Jews like to have their political muscle concentrated, because they have high solidarity amongst themselves but are numerically a minority not just of America, but of Jews,” he said. “They have a political agenda, which is a specialized agenda, that doesn’t lend itself to coalition building.”

Non-Orthodox Jews, on the other hand, tend to join with likeminded individuals — but not necessarily other Jews — to get their voices heard in their state legislatures and in Congress, said Cohen.

Despite the reported Republican maneuvering, a South Brooklyn Jewish Senate district is far from a foregone conclusion. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has vowed to veto any maps that come out of the legislative redistricting task force, which he sees as beholden to partisan interests. Senate Democrats have their own reservations about a Jewish district, warning that it could come at the expense of other ethnically compact districts in Brooklyn.

“While it might be a laudable goal to create a southern Brooklyn district to heavily favor Jewish and Russian communities of interest, we would have to see what that map would look like,” said Jeffrey Wice, special counsel to the Senate Democrats. “If you create a gem in the middle of thorns, the gem might look nice but the thorns will look sloppy.”

Roll Call Reports: A few weeks after former Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle entered the Senate race, she flew to New York City for a fundraiser at a kosher steakhouse, Le Marais, geared toward her fellow Jewish Republicans.

“I’ve been to events that have already raised in excess of six figures for her,” Republican Jewish Coalition President Matt Brooks said. “This is going to be a real priority race for the organization.”

Just last week, as almost every GOP White House hopeful paraded through the RJC’s presidential forum, Florida Senate candidate Adam Hasner worked the confab, too. Lingle and Hasner aren’t strangers to the Jewish Republican community, and neither is Josh Mandel, a Republican running for Senate in Ohio and one of the most successful fundraisers this cycle.

There’s a small tribe of Jewish Republicans in Congress, with a current membership of just one: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.). But that could change this cycle, especially in the Senate where three Jewish Republicans are running in competitive 2012 races.

“We are blessed with many. The harvest is bountiful,” said former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), who is Jewish. “There’s a real possibility of doubling or tripling the number of Republican Jews in the Senate. It’s been a pretty exclusive club.”

Coleman, who lost a lengthy 2008 recount battle in mid-2009, was one of the last Jewish Republicans to serve in the Senate. Around the same time, the Senate’s remaining Jewish Republican, then-Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), left the GOP to become a Democrat. Specter then lost re-election in 2010.

Their departure broke a 50-year tradition of at least one Jewish Republican in the Senate that started in 1957, when former Sen. Jacob Javits (N.Y.) joined the chamber.

Democrats have dominated the ranks of Jewish Members on Capitol Hill for decades. Twenty-four Jewish Democrats currently serve in the House, and 12 Jewish Democrats serve in the Senate.

But since spring of 2009, there’s been a drought on the campaign trail, too. Not a single Jewish Republican has headlined a major Senate race since Coleman’s loss.

What makes this cycle different from all other cycles?

Republicans such as Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said it’s been an evolution over many years. As one of Israel’s most outspoken GOP supporters on Capitol Hill, Kirk represented — and raised prolific money from — a large Jewish population in his former House district on Chicago’s North Shore for 10 years.

“It was quite small initially. The number of Jewish Republicans who would gather in Illinois could fit in a small diner, and that’s it,” said Kirk, who is not Jewish. “But it has changed pretty profoundly so that now the Republican Jewish Coalition meetings in Illinois will have anywhere between 500 and 2,000 people at the events.”

Kirk said he’s also seen a candidate sea change in his former district, where the entire slate of GOP state legislative candidates this cycle are Jewish. While Jewish voters still tend to be Democrats, Kirk said, Republicans have made inroads with a pro-Israel agenda.

Jewish Republican donors rose to prominence and power over the past decade, working to build a national network of financial support for candidates. They point to well-known GOP fundraisers, such as casino magnate Sheldon Adelson in Las Vegas, hedge fund manager Paul Singer in New York and former Ambassadors Mel Sembler and Sam Fox of Florida and Missouri, respectively.

But only recently has the bench of Jewish Republican candidates caught up with donors’ wallets — and the money shows.

Most notably, Mandel raised more than his opponent, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D), for the last two quarters in the competitive Ohio Senate race. Part of Mandel’s funds include a fundraiser in St. Louis hosted by Fox, who helped him raise six figures at an event with RJC members.

Lingle hasn’t had to file her fundraising totals yet for her first quarter in the race, but news outlets reported she brought in $400,000 in the first week of her candidacy. That’s more than either of her Democratic opponents, former Rep. Ed Case or Rep. Mazie Hirono, brought in during the third quarter.

Hasner outpaced his GOP opponents last quarter by raising $535,000 for his challenge to Sen. Bill Nelson (D). However, the dynamic of the primary changed completely when Rep. Connie Mack IV (R) entered the Florida Senate race this month.

Hasner served as Florida’s Jewish outreach chairman for President George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign and held a similar role for the national GOP ticket in 2008. It was on that campaign, Hasner said, that he got to know Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who backed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

“I haven’t come across a disadvantage yet” as a candidate, Hasner said. “When you’re a Jewish Republican, when you’re a minority of a minority, you have to be even more principled and even more resolved and committed to what you believe in.”

There is one other high-profile Republican Senate candidate with Jewish roots this cycle — although his heritage only came to light six years ago in the midst of another hard-fought Senate race.

Former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) was caught off guard in his failed 2006 re-election race when he, a practicing Methodist, discovered his mother was raised Jewish. The revelation came in the wake of the now-infamous “macaca” moment that ultimately sank his campaign.

Jewish Republicans said he’s always forged ties with their community, but he’s embraced the community in a whole new manner since that revelation.

In August 2010, the former governor delivered a speech to the Jewish Learning Institute, five months before he announced his comeback bid for Senate against former Gov. Tim Kaine (D). Video clips of the event show Allen trying to blow into shofar — the horn of a ram used in Jewish religious ceremonies.

What happens if your constituents are not overly happy with your work? You can do a few things: One, you can do a better job, simple! Two, don’t run again as Congressman Frank from MA decided recently. Three, cut out the revolting voters and run in a “new” district.

For backers of Congressman Ed Towns (D-NY), the latter seems to be the easiest option.

As the NYDN reported, the NAACP released recently new maps for a few NY Congressional districts, arguing that their suggestions are needed in order to protect the voting rights of Blacks. But notably, the new map for Towns (NY-10) cuts out “Old Williamsburg” from his district: The whole “Hasidic Area” of Kent, Wythe, Bedford, Lee, Marcy, Harrison avenues East of Flushing are cut out. This means that thousands upon thousands Hasidim who would have the option to vote against Towns in the upcoming Primary, will be represented by Nydia M. Velázquez.

On the books, Mr. Towns did not agree nor disagree with the new NAACP map. However, Dem NY State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries who is poised to announce a run against Towns is lining up support within many communities, including among Hasidim. The best way to cut off Jeffries from beating Towns in a Primary is to change the map. However, the new Towns map moves into some Orthodox Jewish areas of Bob Turner’s district. In this case, it perhaps helps the Democrats on two ends: Jeffries in NY-10 has a smaller chance to beat Towns in a Primary thus guaranteeing another term for Towns, and Turner in NY-9 has a reduced chance to win re-election since he won it largely by a massive Jewish base parts of which will be placed in another district.

Administration officials held a two-hour briefing today midday with dozens of Jewish leaders and activists from across the country who came to participate in the Hanukkah Party hosted today afternoon by President Obama and the first lady.

The briefing was opened by White House Jewish Liaison Jarrod Bernstein. He was followed among others by the Deputy Director of the President’s Domestic Policy Council Mark Zuckerman; Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough; and Jason Furman the Deputy Director of the President’s Economic Council.

The briefing took place in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is adjacent to the White House.

Magie Haberman at Politico Reports: Newt Gingrich’s campaign sent around an invitation to a conference call  during which he’ll discuss U.S.-Israel relations with Jewish supporters.

“Please join current presidential candidate and former Speaker of the U.S.  House of Representatives Newt Gingrich for a conference call and question and  answer session on American’s relationship with Israel,” the invitation  reads.

The call will be held Friday.

This is a point on which Gingrich has been hitting Obama hard, as has much of  the GOP field with the exception of Ron Paul (who has been critical from the  other direction). Israel as cause celebre among GOP presidential prospects is  not new, but it has taken on new intensity this cycle, and it plays well with  Iowa’s evangelical voters.

The AP Reports: Aiming to cast Obama as unfairly harsh toward Israel and soft on the Palestinians, Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have called on the president to fire his ambassador to Belgium. The envoy, Howard Gutman, had said that some anti-Semitism stemmed from tensions between Israel and the Palestinians; Romney and Gingrich say his remarks unfairly blamed Israel.

The White House says Obama has a strong record on support for Israel, and quickly fired back with a statement condemning “anti-Semitism in all its forms.” The State Department said Gutman would remain in his job.

Republicans also challenged Obama’s assertion at a fundraiser last week that “this administration has done more in terms of the security of the state of Israel than any previous administration.” Romney said Obama has “repeatedly thrown Israel under the bus” – an accusation the Republican National Committee repeated Monday.

Firing back, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz called Romney’s comments “outrageous” and questioned his own policies. The White House cited military aid to Israel and support at the United Nations, and pointed to statements from Israeli officials backing up Obama’s assertion.

The fiery debate will likely continue Wednesday when the GOP presidential candidates attend a Washington forum hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Obama campaign officials say they will be ready to respond. And the next day, Jewish leaders will be at the White House for briefings on Israel and a Hanukkah party, followed by an Obama speech next week to an
expected audience of nearly 6,000 at a conference of the Union for Reform Judaism.

Such attention is all being paid in recognition that Jewish voters, though comprising only 2 percent of the electorate nationwide, are an important part of Obama’s base and could make the difference in battleground states including Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada in a close election. Moreover, the Jewish community is an important source of donations, and Obama campaign supporters want to maintain that support as much as Republicans want to chip away at it.

JTA Reports: Blair Nosan grew up in the Detroit suburb of West Bloomfield, attended the University of Michigan and then, like thousands of other young Jews from the beleaguered state, moved away.

Though she grew up in a heavily Jewish area, Nosan, 26, had felt disconnected both from her Jewish identity and the nearby city, which was undergoing its own debilitating population drain. Over the last decade, 25 percent of Detroit’s residents have taken flight. Some 5,000 young Jews left Michigan between 2005 and 2010, according to a 2010 survey by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.

But then Nosan came back.

In 2009, she moved to Detroit to work in its burgeoning urban agriculture scene, eventually starting her own pickling company, Suddenly Sauer.

Nosan was startled to learn that she was part of a significant migration of young Jews to the Motor City — a young Jewish renaissance that has been as unexpected as it has been successful. It’s evident not just in numbers but in a resurgence of Jewish activity and vitality in the heart of Detroit, including among Jews who had never been Jewishly active.

“I did not expect to find a Jewish community at all,” Nosan told JTA, echoing the sentiments of many of Detroit’s new Jewish residents. “Most of the Jews were living in Detroit as participants in the Jewish community, but with their Jewish identity in mind were trying to fill in the blanks of this long history we had had in the city but weren’t raised with.”

Over the last few years, a slew of new programs from the institutional to the grass roots and from suburb to city have blossomed in the Detroit area.

Detroit’s first Moishe House opened in June in midtown, and its occupants — five from the suburbs of Detroit and one from Los Angeles — have been holding five or six Jewish events a month. The most recent was a sauerkraut workshop taught by Nosan that attracted 16 people.

At a bar in Royal Oak, a suburb near Detroit, Rabbi Leiby Burnham began a weekly program in 2007 called Torah on Tap to talk about Judaism in a bar setting, with the drinks paid for by an anonymous donor. Starting with seven people, the event now draws as many as 100 per week.

The most striking example of the transformation of Jewish life in Detroit is at the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, the last remaining synagogue in the city. Detroit once was a major hub of Jewish life, with 44 synagogues. But after race riots in the 1960s and economic decline, most of the city’s whites — Jews included — left for the northern suburbs, repeating a pattern taking place in cities across America.

In 2008, the 90-year old conservative shul was in dire straits — open only once a week, often unable to assemble a minyan and without a rabbi (the last one had died in 2003). The board was considering packing it in and selling the historic four-story building.

“Some didn’t think we had a future,” said David Powell, who has attended Isaac Agree for decades. “We continued to plod along until reinforcements came.”

Starting a few years ago, those reinforcements began to come in the form of young social activists and entrepreneurs who were drawn to the city by its growing arts scene and revitalization programs that offered subsidized rent and unique employment opportunities for social justice work. Many of the Jews among them came to the synagogue, in the process changing it. They began running services, serving on the board and organizing events of the sort that the old shul had never seen: Israeli film screenings, potluck dinners, Israeli folk dancing. Community activists also used it as a gathering place.

“The synagogue wasn’t meeting the needs of the city, and it was struggling,” said Oren Goldenberg, a filmmaker and prominent activist in the community. “It needed to adapt.”

Isaac Agree became more and more popular. Services were held three days a week rather than one. Events were organized to celebrate all the holidays. The synagogue started offering Hebrew lessons and even conversion classes. And now every Friday night it hosts a Shabbat dinner.

“I liked Isaac Agree because it stayed; it’s been here the whole time,” Nosan said. “That’s a poignant point of entry for the community — what’s already here and been here, and figuring out new energy that’s being brought to the table.”

In the past few years, Isaac Agree has more than tripled its membership households, becoming the only conservative synagogue in Michigan not to suffer a decline, according to the 2010 federation survey.

“There are definitely more Jews here then there were a year ago,” said Goldenberg while having coffee in Avalon International Breads, a bakery co-founded by Jackie Vicks, a 20-year resident of the city who joined the synagogue last year. “I live here. When things change, I know it.”

Reuven Blau at The NYDN Reports: A key member of beleaguered city Controller  John Liu’s inner circle is looking to jump ship, the Daily News has  learned.

Deputy  Controller Simcha Felder, his top Jewish aide, has met with Republican state  Senate leaders to discuss running for a super “Jewish district” that is expected  to be drawn up in Brooklyn, sources said.

“This is a very serious option,” said a source familiar with  the talks.

“It’s being discussed,” added a political source close to  Felder.

The idea was broached by state Senate Majority Leader Dean  Skelos, the insiders said. At the meeting, Felder indicated he’d be willing  to change parties if the seat was created under the state’s divisive  redistricting plan.

A state task force is drawing up new political boundaries  to be voted on by the Legislature.

Those controversial new lines will likely include a  district jammed with as many Orthodox Jewish voters as possible in Borough Park.  The area is now divided into two Senate seats and three Assembly spots.

Felder has made no secret of his desire to join the  Legislature. In 2008, he lost a bid to knock off incumbent state Sen. Kevin Parker.

Last January, Felder, a Democrat, left his City Council  seat covering Borough Park to serve as Liu’s deputy controller. Liu at the time  was seen as a strong contender for mayor in 2013.

But a recent fund-raising scandal has rocked his tenure,  badly damaging his chances for higher office.

Felder declined comment.

Gov.  Cuomo has vowed to veto redistricting plans that are not drawn by an  independent body. The politically charged bipartisan task force is set to  release its recommendations in the coming days, sources say. The matter is  likely going to end up in court.

Following our Friday news that Mitt Romney is planning to visit Boro Park Brooklyn in December, the NY Post has this regarding Congressman Bob Turner, (R NY-9):

Taking a page from Bob Turner, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is looking to become the chosen one.

Romney is aggressively courting New York’s growing, conservative Orthodox Jewish communities for votes and campaign cash in the wake of the anti-Obama backlash that helped elect Republican Turner to Congress from a Queens/Brooklyn district.

Romney, a Mormon, is expected to hold a fund-raiser in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn next month — the heart of New York’s Orthodox Jewish community, according to Gestetner Updates, a Jewish political news blog.

He hopes to net $100,000 in donations. Romney previously held three other fund-raisers with the city’s Jewish community leaders.

Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman have also held events with city’s religious Jews.

Rep. Turner said the GOP candidates have taken notice of how conservative, religious Jews came out in force to elect him over Democratic David Weprin, an Orthodox Jew, to repudiate Obama’s policies. The seat, formerly held by Anthony Weiner, who resigned following a sexting scandal, was once considered a safe Democratic seat.

“It’s an important recognition of what happened in my race. This is an awakening of a new political force. The Jewish community is a force to be reckoned with,” Turner said. “They have exerted real political muscle. They were a deciding factor in my election. They went to my side in a very large way.”

Turner, who has remained neutral in the GOP presidential race, said the attention from the candidates is good for the Jewish community because it means the candidates will be responsive to their concerns — particularly on US policy toward Israel.

And now Newt Gingrich — surging in the polls — is making some inroads among New York’s religious Jews.

“I would pay money to watch a debate between Newt Gingrich and Barack Obama,” said state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Brooklyn Democrat and Gingrich booster.

Hikind, a powerhouse in the city’s conservative Orthodox Jewish community, said he’ll work to defeat fellow Democrat Obama because he disagrees with the White House’s handling of Israel.

“Newt has all the ingredients to be a great leader. This is a guy who really gets it in terms of the well-being of Israel,” Hikind told The Post.

“I’ve always been a Newt fan. I’m excited he’s in the running. He’s a brilliant guy with a lot of ideas.

Hikind stopped just short of a formal endorsement. He said he intends to meet the candidate, but made it clear that the former House speaker is his preferred candidate. “No question about it,” Hikind said.

From David Streeter at the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC): Last night, Republican presidential candidates former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingirch (R-GA), Herman Cain, Texas Governor Rick Perry, Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN), former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman participated in the CNN/Heritage Foundation/American Enterprise Institute foreign policy debate. A number of the candidates made many statements that raise concerns about their readiness to become President of the United States. Some of the highlights from the debate included:

* Paul said that Israel should “suffer the consequences” of any potential military strike it conducts against Iran’s nuclear weapons site. Paul also attacked the close U.S.-Israel strategic relationship by saying:

We don’t even have a treaty with Israel. Why do we have this automatic commitment that we’re going to send our kids and send our money endlessly to Israel?

* In keeping with the Republican Party’s use of the Islamic faith as a straw man, Santorum expressed support for religious and ethnic profiling for Muslims at American airports. He said:

Obviously Muslims would be someone you’d look at, absolutely. … Those are the folks who … the radical Muslims are the people that are committing these crimes by and large, as well as younger males.

* Cain—who has a record offensive statements about Islam and Muslims—first said that Santorum’s position on profiling was “oversimplifying” the matter. He then said, “We can do targeted identification. … If you take a look at the people who are trying to kill us, it would be easy to figure out exactly what that identification profile looks like.”

* Perry irresponsibly called for Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to resign over the supercommittee’s failure. In doing so, Perry ignored that Panetta joined with President Barack Obama in urging Congress “to avoid an easy way out of [the debt] crisis.” Perry’s call for Panetta’s resignation would also remove a cabinet official who is deeply involved in strategic cooperation with Israel and widely regarded as a friend to the Jewish state