Leading Pennsylvania Jews endorse Obama

[Hope And Change]

Leading Pennsylvania Jews endorse Obama


Published: 04/01/2008

A group of prominent Pennsylvania Jews endorsed U.S. Sen. Barack Obama in advance of the state's April 22 primary.

In a letter to the state's Jewish community, about 60 Jewish supporters of Obama, including some politicians, rabbis and community leaders, dismissed concerns raised about the candidate's commitment to Israel, praised his response to the controversial statements of his pastor and urged them to support the Illinois lawmaker in the Democratic primary.

Among the signatories were two Jewish Pennsylvania legislators -- Reps. Josh Shapiro and Daylin Leach.

"Senator Obama has earned our respect and gratitude because of his support for traditional Jewish values and his commitment to a peaceful and prosperous Israel," the letter said.

The letter also lauded Obama's recent speech in which he repudiated the views of his controversial pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., and compared support for Obama to Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's famous description of marching for civil rights in Selma as "praying with his feet."

"We have each chosen to pray with our feet and stand with Barack Obama because he is sensitive to the issues of the Jewish community and a stalwart supporter of Israel," the letter said.

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/107838.html

[democrattotheend]

1. Great news!

I was in Montgomery County two weeks ago, which has a big Jewish population, and they have been slow to warm up to him. Hopefully this will help.

[sabra]

2. k & r!

:kick:

[Cha]

3. Awesomely Awesome!

I love it when people take the high road and do what's right for the country not their own pockets.

[DemVet]

46. Uh....

You do realize, of course, that the average working Joe on the street votes for the Democratic Party because of his wallet and NOT the social issues (gay marriage, pro-choice, etc.), right?

[Indenturedebtor]

59. Their own pockets?

Please explain.

[Forkboy]

4. Well, I know at least one Hillary supporter whose head will burst.

[NDambi]

6. me too...

[JayFredMuggs]

I'm sorry, I'm too dense to get that.

Can you mention a name so I get it?

[roguevalley]

23. PM me jayfred. If yu want to know.

[cali]

7. What a delightful thought

I know justp the person you're speaking of.

[sniffa]

28. I'll reserve comment

:D

[Alter Ego]

85. As do I, actually--his name sprang to mind just as I read the title

of the thread.

[sniffa]

29. The whining is going to be insufferable

[Zhade]

35. LOL! Indeed!

:rofl:

[JI7]

75. Eddie ?

[LowerManhattanite]

90. Yep...

He's a “son of” a gun, too. :)

[Tarheel_Dem]

102. i hope he's surrounded by loved ones, just in case.....

i finally had to "iggy" him..........

[TSIAS]

108. ...

[NDambi]

5. Kick!

[1776Forever]

8. Shalome, thank you!

:grouphug:

[C_U_L8R]

9. yes ve can !!

[whatchamacallit]

10. I think I just heard ********'* head explode

;)

[Danger Mouse]

11. rofl

:rofl:

[Emit]

14. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:spray:

[cali]

16. Yep, but you ought to delete

that anyway. it's a call out.

[whatchamacallit]

18. You're right

but how's a guy supposed to have a little fun around here?

[Danger Mouse]

12. wow, that's huge! obama's steadily gaining ground!

[apocalypsehow]

13. K & R.

:thumbsup:

[DerekJ]

15. But...But....But.. they told me Jews will vote McCain...

:rofl:

[grantcart]

17. pray with our feet

[Scurrilous]

19. K & R

:thumbsup:

[Purveyor]

20. Excellent. Thank you for posting. K&R eom

[Buzz Clik]

21. What about the irrelevant and insignificant Jews in Pennsylvania? Who are they voting for?

[anonymous171]

22. DID SOMEONE REMIND THEM ABOUT FARRAKAN!

:rofl: :kick:

[NedSchneebly]

101. Actually ... that is NO JOKE ...

Someone should remind them about Farrakan

[The Night Owl]

105. Considering what the PA Jews for Obama wrote in their endorsement letter, I would say that...

...Pastor Wright reminds them of Louis Farrakhan.

[blonndee]

24. Good news.

Very positive.

[The Night Owl]

25. Are we cheering the fact that prominent PA Jews have rightly pointed out the antisemitic nature...

...of Pastor Wright's comments or only the fact that they are endorsing Barack Obama?

[anonymous171]

26. Both. It's good that they chose to endorse Obama over Wright.

Because I would never vote for that wild pastor.

[The Night Owl]

27. So, you agree that Pastor Wright has made antisemitic comments? {EOM}

[anonymous171]

30. All he said was that "zionism" had an element of white racism.

How is that anti-semitic?

[The Night Owl]

31. The prominent PA Jews who endorsed Obama feel that Pastor Wright has made antisemitic...

...comments. Maybe you should trust their judgment in more than one area. I know I do. Moreover, Pastor Wright's statement about Zionism is not "all" that he has said and you know it.

[anonymous171]

32. I'm not voting for Wright no matter how hard you try to convince me otherwise

[The Night Owl]

33. I think we can make judgments about Pastor Wright as an important figure in Barack Obama's life...

I think we can make judgments about Pastor Wright as an important figure in Barack Obama's life without presuming that those judgments apply to Barack Obama.

[anonymous171]

40. Just like Hillary's 15 year involvement with the fascist religious group "The Fellowship"?

[DerekJ]

45. Are you a Jew?

[The Night Owl]

49. No. {EOM}

[Warren DeMontague]

52. Well, I am, and I support Obama.

Really, thanks for looking out for us, but we can take care of ourselves, thanks.

[GarbagemanLB]

54. Haha. Owned.

[The Night Owl]

55. I'm not looking out for anyone. I'm simply voicing my opinion. {EOM}

[democrattotheend]

34. I would agree with that

But I am judging Obama on his own merits, and I don't believe for one second that he harbors any anti-semitic views.

[Zhade]

37. Nope. Opposing zionism as endorsed by rightwing Israeli policians is not anti-Semitic.

NT!

[The Night Owl]

38. Do you reject Pastor Wright's suggestion that Israel should not be considered a state?

[Zhade]

42. I have not studied his remarks in that regard, so I cannot fairly comment.

I have no idea, for example, if you're just pulling that out of context, as so many clinton supporters have done in the past.

[The Night Owl]

43. In one TUCC bulletin, Pastor Wright suggests that Israel is not really a state...

http://tucc.org/upload/tuccbulletin_july8.pdf

"Most of our members do not know that my Master’s Degree from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School was in the area of Islam in West Africa during the 19th Century — when the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was at its zenith. Islam has as many manifestations as Christianity and Judaism, but most Americans are only fed a media diet on Islam as it relates to the “war on terror” and the Palestinian muslim problem in the “state” of Israel." - Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A Wright, Jr. Senior Pastor

Note the inappropriate quotation marks around the word "state" toward the end of the text.

[anonymous171]

44. Wait a minute. Why are you talking about Wright when it was Obama who recieved the endorsement?

[The Night Owl]

48. Don't you think we should consider everything that the prominent PA Jews who endorsed...

...Barack Obama wrote in their endorsement?

[kwassa]

92. NOT INAPPROPRIATE QUOTATION MARKS !!!!!!

always a clear indication of anti-semitism.

Somebody needs to get a life. Or at least a job.

[The Night Owl]

94. Excuse me? Israel is a state. Suggesting, as Pastor Wright did, that Israel should not be...

...considered a state is the kind of rhetoric one expects from people like David Duke.

And, keep in mind that Pastor Wright has yet to explain why he thinks that Israel is a dirty word. I would really like to know what he means by that.

[kwassa]

103. oh, what wild and ridiculous speculation ......

Wright suggested no such thing. You willfully misrepresent those quote marks, and attempt to slander Wright with a comparison with David Duke that has zero factual basis.

What those quotes really question is WHETHER Israel is a state, not WHETHER IT SHOULD BE a state. Big damn difference.

I would also point out that being anti-Israel is not the same as being anti-Semitic, so that argument holds no water, either.

You got nothin'.

[The Night Owl]

104. Let us try your reasoning in a different context...

Consider the following sentence...

Muslims practice the "religion" know as Islam.

In the sentence above, I am not questioning whether Islam is a religion or not, but rather directly disputing or mocking the idea that Islam is a religion.

Even if Pastor Wright questions, rather than disputes, the idea that Israel is a state, the fact remains that he has no legitimate reason to question Israel's statehood. Israel is a state. End of story.

[kwassa]

106. so, you agree with me your interpretation is incorrect.

Even if Pastor Wright questions, rather than disputes, the idea that Israel is a state, the fact remains that he has no legitimate reason to question Israel's statehood. Israel is a state. End of story

How could you possibly know? You, in fact, know nothing about Wright's reasoning.

Wright does not explain what he means by those quotes, and you don't know what he means when he questions whether Israel is a state or not, and why he does it. It could be a purely technical or political argument about what constitutes a state.

Therefore, you can't accuse him of being anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic, or even anti-Israel, because you simply don't know his thought process behind those quotes.

You are essentially just making shit up. There is a lot of that in this forum, unfortunately.

[Warren DeMontague]

50. It might prevent me from voting for Pastor Wright, if he were actually running for anything.

Since you're seemingly so obsessed with Pastor Wright, perhaps you should invent a fantasy alternate universe where he is actually ON the Democratic Primary ballot, along with Superman, The King of the Unicorns, and Toto from the Wizard of Oz. Then you can have fun spinning all kinds of hypothetical imaginary primary season scandals whereby Pastor Wright's more outrageous statements could be weighed against, say, Toto taking a poop on The Cowardly Lion's throw rug.

As for This Universe, BOTH candidates for the Democratic nomination- Clinton and Obama are their names, if you hadn't heard- unequivocally support Israel's right to exist and defend itself.

[The Night Owl]

53. I am only responding to what the people who endorsed Barack Obama wrote. {EOM}

[Warren DeMontague]

56. Then you should read the whole thing.

For us, the strategy of assigning guilt by association – as has been to done to Senator Obama – runs counter to our teachings and dishonors Jewish law and ethical traditions. Jewish law neither condemns thoughts nor does it denounce the musing of other’s hearts. By contrast, under Jewish law, we – all of us – are judged by our actions and our actions alone.

Senator Obama has earned our respect and gratitude because of his support for traditional Jewish values and his commitment to a peaceful and prosperous Israel.

If you're so interested in the concerns of the people who wrote this letter, why don't you LISTEN TO THEM- and stop trying to hang someone else's words on Barack Obama. He's responsible for what comes out of his OWN mouth, not anyone else's.

[The Night Owl]

57. I haven't hung anyone else's words on Barack Obama and I agree with everything...

...that the prominent PA Jews wrote about Obama in their endorsement letter... and, I agree with what they wrote about Jeremiah Wright. Keep in mind that I'm not the one here who is trying to exclude apects of the endorsement letter from the discussion.

[Warren DeMontague]

58. Who is trying to "Omit" anything? I'd copy the whole thing, but that's against DU rules.

Here's a link to it:

http://elections.jta.org/2008/04/01/pa-jews-for-obama/


See, since this is GD: Primaries, ideally discussions here should pertain to the Primary elections. If you want a big thread about Jeremiah Wright, I think you're in the wrong place. Like I said, he's not running for anything.

[The Night Owl]

60. What I mean is that some here don't want to discuss a certain aspect of the endorsement letter.

When you post an article, you should consider all aspects of that article, including the subject matter of the article, to be the subject of the discussion which follows.

[Warren DeMontague]

61. You can't have it both ways.

Either your discussion is entirely about Rev. Wright- and has zero to do with Barack Obama and his qualifications or lack thereof for President, in which case I can't imagine why you would think it belongs in a discussion of the Democratic Primaries...

OR, you are trying to insinuate that Obama is somehow responsible for Wright's words, you are trying to smear Obama with Wright's words, in which case you are clearly engaging in PRECISELY the "guilt by association" that, as the letter writers put it "runs counter to our teachings and dishonors Jewish law and ethical traditions".

So which is it? Are you trying to slam Obama because of Wright? Or are you just lost and looking for the I-really-don't-like-Rev.-Wright forum?

[The Night Owl]

83. I am not insinuating anything. I am fully convinced that...

...Barack Obama not only disagrees with the awful things that Pastor Wright has said but is disgusted by them as well. That said, I don't agree with the idea that Pastor Wright is irrelevant in regard to Obama's bid for the presidency. I think that Obama's assocation with Wright will hurt him in the general election because a lot of people will judge him to be guilty for his association with Wright.

[EmilyAnne]

70. You know, poor Toto really got screwed. When you think about it, the whole thing was a dream,

but even after Dorothy woke up, Toto was still with that mean old lady. I wonder how all that turned out.

[eagertolearn]

100. Actually, I think they said that they liked his response to the

whole Reverand Wright smear tactic. Most people saw right through that smear and have moved on but the repugs and HC campaign would like to keep it going because they think it is their ticket....it is, but to the losing bracket! Each time individuals and groups come "on board" the Obama campaign it helps others see that people can stick to the issue's and make the right decisions (in otherwards the smear campaigns are not working!).

[SunsetDreams]

36. kick

[Kber]

39. As a jew

and someone who STRONGLY supports Isreal's right to exist, I believe that Bush has been the worst president for Isreal ever.

Isreal's survival depends on creating a lasting and sustainable peace with her neighbors and that cannot be achieved by military might. Obama gets that and, therefore, is in a positions to be the best friend Israel has had in American politics in some time.

[fedupinBushcountry]

41. K&R

:kick:

[Catherina]

47. This is great news for Obama! Looks like the scare tactics failed again! n/t

:woohoo:

[liberaldem4ever]

51. Good news! K & R

[DerekJ]

62. kick

[DerekJ]

63. One more kick, because you know who is here.

[jackson_dem]

64. As usual "Hope And Change" has the latest Obama campaign news hot off the presses

[DerekJ]

65. Yep Obama's "press" is just fooling us all, It's a made up story.

Boy!!, You guys rock!! Never seen a more delusional bunch

[jackson_dem]

68. Can you clarify that illogical reply?

[DerekJ]

69. Can you clarify your asinine post?!!

[tammywammy]

66. recommended

[BuyingThyme]

67. Am I the only one to have a problem with the phrase LEADING JEWS?

[tammywammy]

71. I don't have a problem with it

:shrug:

[Eric J in MN]

76. Doesn't bother me and I'm Jewish. NT

NT

[Apollo11]

77. No. You ain't.

I think the idea of linking the fact that someone is a Jew with the fact that they are an elected official, or someone in a position of power, is dangerous because it provides the foundation for antisemitism.

It reinforces the idea that people born and raised into the Jewish religion are a homogenous group who think and act as a block. It seems to imply that where "Leading Jews" are going, other Jews are likely to follow.

It provides antisemites with ammunition for saying that "Oh look - it's the Jews who are behind it!" (with in this case "it" being the Obama campaign).

[elleng]

81. I agree with your second paragraph,

but not with your suggestions about 'antisemitism.'

One real irony is the suggestion that we think and act as a block! Imagine that! How many Jewish people does it take to make a debate? a disagreement? an argument?

[The Night Owl]

97. Bizzare reasoning. {EOM}

[elleng]

80. No.

I've asked how one becomes a 'Leading Jew.'

[ChairmanAgnostic]

93. run the fastest of anyone else. OR

develop a following because of your teachings, insights, wisdom, etc.

Although I am not Jewish, and I have major concerns about Palestine Israel strife (on both sides), I have and always will admire how they push education, and how a teacher is honored, not stepped on.

[The Night Owl]

96. The word "leading" is a synonym of the word "prominent" and as such is a...

...perfectly acceptable word to use to describe the "prominent Pennsylvania Jews" written about in the JTA article.

[Hope And Change]

72. Kick!

:kick:

[AmericanUnity]

73. I'm verklempt!!

[cooolandrew]

74. This is a very significant endorsement keep it kicked, my friends.

[catgirl]

78. People are starting to see through Hillary's phoniness (nt)

[elleng]

79. How the heck

does one get to be a 'Leading Jew?'

I hate this sort of b.s.

[Vinca]

82. A big, big endorsement! Wow! nt

[Not the Only One]

84. Excellent

More momentum.

[stratomagi]

86. According to Hillary he isn't doing enough to court

the Jewish vote...oh wait.

[berni_mccoy]

87. Kicking along with all the other good news from today.

[DevonRex]

88. Now if Andrea Mitchell

will just shut up. She's been peddling that "rift" ever since Hillary said she'd make Greenspan head of the millionth commission she wants to start.

[Fyddlestyx]

89. K & R

:kick:

[jakem]

91. THOSE JEWS DONT COUNT!!!

[jberryhill]

95. "Leading Pennsylvania Jews"

Oh... I thought they were Amish.

[gore08]

98. Hey- How do I get to be a "Leading Jew"?

I'm a Jewish Obama supporter, too. What makes these Jews so important?

Maybe they are "prominent" but I think the term "leading", even as a synonym for "prominent" is really silly. We Jews are hardly a homogenous bunch. I'm sure there are many, many other "leading Jews" supporting other candidates.

[jberryhill]

107. There's a joke in there somewhere about...

...burning bush, but I'm too lazy to tease out a punchline there.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

99. Excellent!

[Forkboy]

109. Someone sure is doing their best to avoid this thread.

I wonder why.