Is Barack Obama Good for the Jews?

For most Presidential elections of the past 100 years, Jews have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats, with the exception of the 1920 election when many Jewish women, overwhelmed by Warren Harding's goyische good looks, pulled the lever for the Republicans. But this year many Jews are asking themselves, Is Barack Obama is good for the Jews?

The most prominent Jewish politician in the country, Joseph Lieberman, has endorsed John McCain, even though Obama backed him in his Democrat primary race for Senate in Connecticut. But that doesn't necessarily mean that other Jews will follow suit. In the 2000 Presidential election many elderly Florida Jews surprised pundits by voting for Pat Buchanan rather than Al Gore, despite the fact that his running mate was Lieberman, apparently because they felt that Lieberman was "too Jewish." (They didn't vote for Bush because they were angry at his father who they suspected of anti-Semitism for trying to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians.)

Lieberman has always been a bit embarrassing to many Jews because he seems to confirm the worst stereotypes people have of Jews. He's like the whiny kid in Hebrew class you didn't want to walk home with because it would be like walking with a magnet for anti-Semitic bullies. And his disloyalty to the Democrats and Obama (after begging Obama to help him) and his lack of subtlety about appearing to put Israel ahead of American interests embarrasses many Jews who have worked so hard at appearing to be loyal trustworthy Americans.

Lieberman's disdain for Obama seems puzzling. But I have two three four five sources who claim that there is a damaging videotape of Michelle Obama that explains the rift. Apparently, when Obama first came to the Senate, there was a luncheon of Senate wives, which someone videotaped. According to my friends who have not actually seen the tape but have friends who have friends who have seen it, Mrs. Lieberman asked Mrs. Obama if she had ordered the pastrami on rye and Mrs. Obama can distinctly be heard saying, "No, Jew." Obama's staff later claimed that his wife was actually saying, "No, did you?" but the damage was already done. I think this may actually be the mysterious videotape that Larry Johnson's friends' friends claim they have seen.

But most Jews will not be so easy for the Republicans to woo as Lieberman was. Many Jews are suspicious of conservatives, especially evangelicals. They, of course, appreciate the Christian Right's staunch support of Israel but suspect an ulterior motive. Evangelicals seem to love Israel just a little too much, perhaps because they believe that Israel's existence is necessary for the Rapture. They believe that when the Rapture comes many Jews will convert to Christianity, which they don't think will be such a big deal because they think of Christianity as Judaism Plus. Though I did eventually see the light and converted from Judaism to Christianity after seeing The Chronicles of Narnia, many Jews are a bit more stubborn about the conversion thing, even when weighed against the prospect of eternal damnation, and I suspect that when the Rapture does come many evangelicals will be disappointed.

Jews are also nervous about many conservatives' anti-immigration activism. It's not that Jews like Mexicans any more than conservatives do (and their food certainly gives many Jews heartburn) but some of the rhetoric about immigrants sounds oddly familiar. A recent post that appeared on a number of conservative blogs illustrates why many Jews are troubled. Writing about a federal immigration raid on a kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa, Nancy Matthis described the situation as "a Protestant (mostly Lutheran) small town co-opted by Jewish business interests, Jewish businessmen skirting the law to turn an extra buck." Just in case the anti-Semitic overtones of greedy Jews taking over a small Christian town was not clear enough, one blog even tagged the post "Den of Thieves," a phrase that sets off anti-Semitic alarm bells, though I'm sure this blogger, who is from the south and probably hasn't met many real Jews, didn't realize that. If conservatives actually do want to win over Jews in the Fall, they really must be careful not to put the words "Jewish business interests" and "turn an extra buck" in the same sentence.

Of course, McCain, loves immigrants and hopes to give them all amnesty, which is why he is having trouble winning over many conservatives. And when one of his supporters, the Rev. John Hagee, was discovered making anti-Semitic remarks, he immediately denounced him, though he didn't seem to care so much when this man made anti-Catholic remarks.

Obama, however, is going to have to do a lot more denouncing to overcome Jewish concerns. No matter how many times Obama denounces people like Farrakhan and Rev. Wright and Hamas, there always seems to be another anti-Semitic supporter to repudiate, like the one who posted something on Obama's public blog, which was immediately removed but not before many claimed that it proved that Obama was anti-Semitic because anti-Semitic people like him, while McCain doesn't have any distasteful supporters at all. And Obama is going to have to work overtime to deny rumors that he is a Muslim who wants to wipe Israel off the map and that he has a secret plan to round up all the Jews and put them in ghettos where black people now live. If Obama would just say, "I do not have any secret plans at the current time to make peace with Iran by driving the Jews out of Israel into the sea or move black people into the homes of Jewish people and move all the Jewish people to Harlem," I think many Jews would be relieved. But so far Obama has not forcefully denied these rumors. And how hard would it be for Obama to release his birth certificate so that we can be certain his middle name is not really Muhammad instead of Hussein, which would make a lot of difference as to whether Jews could support him (though I must say I'm not quite sure why Muhammad is worse than Hussein)? Not very. So why hasn't he done it?

Although Obama said all the right things about Israel in his speech to AIPAC (and, in fact, he may have gone overboard, which also makes Jews suspicious), he is going to have to do more (but not too much more). Every day, it seems, I get emails making yet another anti-Semitic charge against Obama. I can't imagine who is sending out all these emails but I'm sure they have Jewish voters' best interests at heart. Some of them do seem a bit outlandish. Now, I don't personally believe that Obama uses the blood of Jewish babies in ritual sacrifices to help him maintain his youthful appearance, but until Obama states unequivocally that he does not, many Jews will be reluctant to vote for him. That doesn't mean that they will vote for McCain, but they just might write in Pat Buchanan's name instead.

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