J4O Newsletter: Edgar Bronfman Endorses Obama!

Among Jewish voters, some feel the basic question is which candidate will act in the best interest of Israel. The answer is Barack Obama. As an American Jew who loves Israel, I cannot support John McCain. He cannot provide what Israel needs most — a respected, credible, morally strong America. To have the United States and Israel both regarded by the rest of the world as unreliable and in isolation is no way to solve the problems that plague both countries. This has been the effect of the Bush policies, and these are the policies that John McCain has promised to continue. Barack Obama is the candidate who can restore America's moral authority in the world and position our government to help negotiate peace.

Now is not the time to rest. The election is Obama's to lose, but he can lose it if we don't keep doing everything we can right up until the polls close on Election Day. Here's what you can do to help:

Barack Obama is truly an inspirational figure, but just as inspirational are the stories of the normal, everyday people who have made his campaign a success. We would like to share some of them with you in this and our upcoming issues.

Jane Ramsey: Why I support Barack Obama

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Jane Ramsey

I first became aware of Barack Obama when he came to Chicago in 1985 and took the helm of the Developing Communities Project. As the Director of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, an organization that works closely with Chicago communities, I was aware of the extraordinary skills Obama brought as he built the organization, significantly enhancing its strong, positive impact upon Chicago's southside communities. Obama mobilized the community to address job training, school-based asbestos and lead paint problems and critical affordable housing issues. Later, in 1991, when he returned to Chicago having obtained his law degree from Harvard, he joined the exceptional law firm of Miner, Barnhill, and Galland, best known for its advocacy on behalf of those most vulnerable in society and for its independence and courage, challenging the Chicago machine regarding its hiring and local redistricting practices.

Over the years, Obama made his priority those matters that most affect everyday people. At the state level, he focused on reforming ethics and health care laws, while sponsoring laws that increased tax credits for low-income workers, gained subsidies for childcare, and addressed payday loan and predatory mortgage lending regulations. When Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate, he brought his concern for these same issues to the national level, and focused as well on critical matters including climate change, energy independence, conventional weaponry, and nuclear terrorism.

In addressing these and many other issues, Obama has shown wisdom, impressive political skills, and determination to further his vision for a strong, healthy, and just nation. As Jews and as Americans, we embrace this vision, knowing that a strong and just America is also the safest one for our community, our nation, and our world. Obama's vision defies the particular. He has shown a breadth of concern that cuts across race, religion, ethnicity, class, and political party. His quick grasp of local, national and international matters has been demonstrated time and again. Importantly for the Jewish community, and for all with a special concern for Israel, Obama has articulated and demonstrated his strong support for Israel, including an understanding of the grave issues confronting it.

In supporting Barack Obama, we support an extraordinary man, one who will bring to the Presidency a deep commitment to local communities, while exerting exceptional leadership nationally, giving us reason for hope as our nation faces daunting challenges.

Julian Koss: Coming Together for Obama

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As a life-long resident of Massachusetts and a Democrat to boot, it was unnerving to be surrounded by so many Jewish Republicans when I retired to Sarasota, Florida six and a half years ago. I learned, quite to my dismay, that their money, and the Republican line that Obama was a Muslim, played a large part in their early support for John McCain.

I was not the only Jew alarmed, and a group of like-minded members of my Temple set out to convince as many as we could that Barak Obama was not a Muslim and not a terrorist, and would not only be the best choice for President, but for the safety of Israel and the world. We met weekly to talk. And in the best Jewish tradition, if there were ten at a meeting, there were eleven opinions on whatever we discussed.

By Sunday, October 19, the day of the “Women For Obama” rally in Sarasota, our group of Jewish Democrats, Republicans and Independents proudly walked together across the beautiful Ringling Bridge and back in support of the next President of The United States. Believe me when I tell you that even the cannine members of our group had signs on their coats — in Hebrew — in support of Obama!

On October 29, Sen. Silverstein discussed Sen. Obama and his bid for the presidency in an extended interview by Nachum Segal, host of the New York City radio show JM in the AM, which has around 60,000 regular listeners.

Segal, who is a proud voter who keeps his personal preferences private, chose to have Silverstein on his show to get his opinion on Obama, because Silverstein is an Orthodox Jew who actually knows Obama personally. Segal felt his listeners would be interested in the Jewish inside scoop on what sort of person we are considering to run our country.

“To my friends in the Jewish community who are not yet supporting Obama, I would say... Please look at the issues carefully. Examine the positions that Barack Obama has stated on his web site (they are all laid out very carefully). Educate yourself — education is the thing that we as Jews hold so dear. Look at not what the opposition is saying, but look at his history, look at his policies, look at his votes, look at the issues. Use your head and say, are these the things that I believe in?”

If the exile of Christians from Mosul were an aberration, then perhaps we could maintain the illusion that, as John McCain claims, the Surge has “succeeded”. But, alas, what is happening in Mosul is the rule, not the exception. According to the Congressional Research Service, 2 million Iraqi refugees have fled the country since the start of the war, in addition to 2.2 million displaced people within the country who are unable to return to their homes. Why are all these people unable to return? Because they're Christians who had lived among Muslims, or Sunnis who had livved among Shiites, or Shiites who had lived among Sunnis, and the Surge has done nothing to address the sectarian divides which plague Iraq.

The Jewish people know all too well the terror of “Convert or Die!” Furthermore, we've learned from the history of the modern State of Israel that large refugee populations are the terrorists' most fertile recruiting ground. For us, as Jews, to turn a blind eye to the plight of Iraqi refugees and continue to pretend that the Surge “worked” is to compromise our own security and ignore the moral imperative to ensure for others the freedom of religion which we enjoy.

The Republican Jewish Coalition has been swamping Jews in battleground states with unbelievably dishonest, fear-mongering ads and mailings about Sen. Barack Obama. Recently, their dishonesty fell to a new low, when they repeated, yet again, the false claim that Obama opposes labeling Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization (in fact, Obama sponsored a bill which does just that). But here's the kicker: to support their false claim, they cited an article from the non-partisan FactCheck.org, “McCain misrepresents Obama's stand on naming Revolutionary Guard as terrorists,” which disproves their claim!

After the National Jewish Democratic Council called them on their deception, the RJC amended the ad, but rather than removing the patently false claim about the Revolutionary Guard, they simply changed the footnote.

Click here to read more about the RJC's lies and what is being done to combat them.

Yes, that's right, Bob Grant claimed that Barack Obama wants to be a dictator because, during an appearance in Toledo, Ohio, Obama had the chutzpah to appear on a stage whose backdrop included several Ohio state flags.

FactCheck.org also has something to say about the smear Grant repeats that Obama painted over the American flag on his campaign plane. Obama painted over the flag on the plane's tail because he moved it to the side of the plane, which is where, by the way, the flag is on McCain's campaign plane as well. Sheesh, can you believe this stuff?

The scholars urge American Jews to vote with the “minds as well as their hearts” and to overcome the fears of an Obama presidency stoked by false rumors circulated in the Jewish community. “Senator Obama,” they write, “has dedicated himself to promoting racial and religious tolerance and coexistence, speaking out against anti-Semitism and bigotry of all kinds. He embodies the Jewish hope for a society in which race, ethnicity, and religion are not barriers to achievement.”

The signers include faculty members and independent scholars in regions of the country, as well as American scholars living in Israel, Canada, and Great Britain. They teach, research, and lecture on all aspects from Jewish history, culture, and religion, from the Bible to modern times.

This song and the accompanying music video is an attempt to reach out to older, Yiddish-speaking Jews who may be wary about Obama because of the lies which have been spread about his background, beliefs and associations.

Please watch this moving video and forward it to the Yiddish speakers in your address book! Click here if you can't see the video at left.

“Andy, Henry and I love our country, and we just hope that we can earn an extra five minutes of your time to really think through this important election, register, and vote with your heart, your mind, and with courage and vision.”