The Fight for the Jewish Vote

Obama has worked strenuously to combat Jewish misgivings about his candidacy. His campaign has highlighted the prominent role Jews played in his rise in Illinoispolitics. And he has appeared before numerous Jewish groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., in June, when he declared Israel's security "sacrosanct" and "non-negotiable." The speech was well received and earned him a sort of "hechsher," says Wald—the certification from a rabbi that food is kosher. In Florida, Obama has dispatched well-regarded Jewish surrogates like U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who have been making an emphatic case for the Democratic nominee. The Republicans "are wrong on funding and improving education, they are wrong on health care and wrong on civil rights and civil liberties," says Wasserman Schultz. "Barack Obama supports all our values, not just some of them."

Obama is also getting support from a recently announced campaign called The Great Schlep. Sponsored by the Jewish Council for Education and Research, its goal is to get young Jews from around the country to "schlep" to Florida to persuade their bubbes (grandmothers) and zaydes (grandfathers) to vote for Obama. The group enlisted comedian Sarah Silverman to shoot a humorous, expletive-filled video to promote its Web site, TheGreatSchlep.com. In it, she suggests that grandkids use threats if necessary. "If they vote for Barack Obama, they're going to get another visit this year," she says. "If not, let's just hope they stay healthy until next year."

Another boon for Obama: his choice of Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate. "He generally reflects the values of Jews even though he isn't one, and no one can question his credentials vis-à-vis Israel," says Ira Sheskin, a fellow at The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies at the University of Miami. In the AJC poll, 73 percent of respondents approved of Biden's selection, compared to only 15 percent who disapproved. Wexler, who recently toured the state with Biden, recounts how the Delaware senator regaled some elderly Jewish voters at Century Village in Deerfield Beach with stories of meeting Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and her successor, Yitzhak Rabin. "It's great to be with mishpocheh [family]," Biden told them.

Biden is one of the reasons Hannah Handler Hostyk, an Orthodox Jew who lives in Hollywood, Fla., is planning to vote for the Democratic presidential ticket—a first for her. But Palin was the deciding factor. "I was shocked," she says. "I watched some of the speeches at the [Republican] convention and some of the debates. Each time, I was more and more appalled." Hostyk finds a number of Palin's traits disturbing: her hard-line position on abortion, her extreme religiosity and her apparent ignorance on economic and foreign-policy matters. "Basically, on every issue, Sarah Palin is not coming from where I'm coming from," says Hostyk. In the aftermath of the Palin pick, "Obama and Biden became the perfect ticket." If enough Florida Jews share such sentiments, they may help propel that ticket all the way to the White House.

© 2008