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Jewish Journal

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April 14, 2015

Poll: American Jewish support for Obama dropping

Leave a Comment / United States /

Job approval ratings for President Obama have dropped among American Jews from 61 percent to 50 percent since the start of 2015, a new Gallup poll found.

The American Jews interviewed for the poll released this week gave Obama a 50 percent approval rating in March, dropping from 52 percent in February and 61 percent in January.

The poll results were based on interviews with 1,022 Americans who identified themselves as Jewish and conducted as part of daily tracking from January through the end of March. The Jewish segment of the survey has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

For the first quarter of this year, 54 percent of American Jews liked the job Obama was doing as president, compared with an average of 46 percent among all Americans, the poll found. The 8 percent gap was the narrowest in nine months and lower than the average 13 percent gap through most of Obama’s time in office.

Until now, Jewish support for Obama has dropped and risen at the same rate as all Americans since he took office in January 2009.

The 16 percent of Jews who report weekly religious service attendance gave Obama a much lower approval rating, 34 percent. Some 62 percent of American Jews with post-college graduate education approved of Obama’s performance, with 39 percent with only a high school degree or lower expressing approval.

Female American Jews approved of Obama’s job performance at a rate of 59 percent, compared to 48 percent for Jewish males.

Relations between the Israeli and U.S. administrations have been rocky for weeks following a spat over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address last month to a joint meeting of Congress and Obama’s more upbraiding of Netanyahu for the prime minister’s campaign rhetoric about Arab voters and apparent lack of support for Palestinian statehood.

Poll: American Jewish support for Obama dropping Read More »

Obama, in meetings with Jewish leaders and donors, stresses how much he cares

Leave a Comment / United States /

Jewish leaders expected President Barack Obama to sell them hard on the Iran nuclear deal. Instead, participants in two White House meetings on Monday said he offered a softer pitch on how deeply he cares for Israel and the Jewish people.

“He tried to explain he understands Jewish trauma, history, the Jewish feeling of being alone in a bad neighborhood,” said a participant in the first meeting, which was attended by 15 top officials from Jewish organizations.

Another described the meeting as “intense.”

“There was an openheartedness, there were some deep reflections by the president,” this participant said.

Sources said the second meeting, for Jewish fundraisers for the Democratic Party, had a similar cast.

“He said, ‘I consider it a moral failure if something happened to Israel on my watch,’” a participant in the fundraisers’ meeting said. “He said, ‘I feel like I’m a member of the tribe.’”

JTA spoke to six participants in the meetings, both of which were off the record. None agreed to be identified because of ground rules set by the White House. Additionally, representatives of a number of groups gave JTA descriptions of the meetings. The accounts did not differ.

All six participants used “therapeutic” to describe the tone of the meetings.

Obama’s tone – at times anguished, according to participants – signals his concerns about how his presidency, heading into lame duck territory, is perceived in terms of his relationship to Israel and to Jews.

He raised these concerns in an interview with The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman posted April 5 on the newspaper’s website.

“It has been personally difficult for me to hear the sort of expressions that somehow we don’t have, this administration has not done everything it could to look out for Israel’s interest,” Obama told Friedman. “And the suggestion that when we have very serious policy differences, that that’s not in the context of a deep and abiding friendship and concern and understanding of the threats that the Jewish people have faced historically and continue to face.”

The worries come in the wake of a crisis in U.S.-Israel relations, focused mostly on disagreements over the Iran nuclear talks, but also fueled by lingering resentments over the collapse last year of the U.S.-brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and the difficulties that Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have in communicating with one another.

Jewish voter approval of Obama is at 54 percent, Gallup reported last week, just eight points above the national average of 46 percent. Jewish approval of Obama has routinely run 10-15 points higher than the national average throughout his presidency.

Earlier this month, the major powers and Iran announced the outline of a deal that would exchange sanctions relief for restrictions aimed at keeping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Congress was considering legislation that would require its review of any deal, and Obama had said he would veto it.

Last week, Secretary of State John Kerry held a meeting with Jewish leaders from the same organizations attending the White House meeting asking them not to lobby in favor of the legislation.

However, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate by Monday afternoon were close to a compromise on the legislation that would address White House concerns, and Obama told the second meeting with Jewish leaders that his concerns about the bill were allayed.

It’s not clear what the compromises were, but Democrats were seeking to remove from the bill determinations for the contents of a final deal, which is due by June 30, and instead confine the bill to mandating congressional review of any deal. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told MSNBC on Tuesday morning that a deal had been reached and that the bill was ready for a committee vote to take place that afternoon.

A number of the more conservative organizational leaders attending the first meeting, among them Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Allen Fagin, the Orthodox Union’s CEO, challenged Obama on the particulars of the Iran deal, including concerns that the sanctions relief went further than merited by the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activity.

The meeting with the fundraisers became more of a strategy session on how Obama could better his messaging to Jewish-Americans, Israelis and the wider American community. Advice included being more communicative with Congress, which has regarded the White House as insulated, and engaging directly with the Israeli public, which is still reeling over the bitter exchanges prior to Netanyahu’s speech to Congress in March. The address was arranged without consulting the White House.

Along with Obama, National Security Adviser Susan Rice attended the first meeting. The second meeting included Vice President Joe Biden, who for decades has been close to the pro-Israel community, and Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s closest advisers.

Organizations represented at the first meeting included the World Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, J Street, the National Council of Jewish Women, B’nai B’rith International, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Jewish Federations of North America, the National Jewish Democratic Council, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Israel Policy Forum, as well as representatives from the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox streams.

The second meeting, with 14 invitees, included major Democratic givers and fundraisers, including Haim Saban, the Israeli-American entertainment mogul who has been critical of Obama’s Middle East policies; and Democratic donors associated with AIPAC, including past presidents Amy Friedkin and Howard Friedman, and with J Street, including Alexandra Stanton, Lou Susman and Victor Kovner.

Not all of the Jewish leaders at the first meeting were won over by the president’s appeal for understanding.

“People who come in with an anger and a dislike still walked out with an anger and a dislike,” said a participant who was sympathetic to the president but asked tough questions. “But a little guilty.”

Obama, in meetings with Jewish leaders and donors, stresses how much he cares Read More »

Le Pen picks fight with father amid party’s surging Jewish support

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

At 27, David Rachline is the youngest senator in the history of France’s Fifth Republic and a rising force within the country’s third largest party.

A university dropout and the son of a Jewish Socialist Party activist, Rachline crushed his opponents in the 2014 mayoral elections in the city of Frejus. Six months later he was elected to the French Senate.

Rachline is part of a new generation of far-right politicians. His Jewish roots and wunderkind aura have helped make him the poster child for efforts to rehabilitate the National Front, a far-right party long shunned due to the open xenophobia of its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Under Le Pen’s daughter, Marine Le Pen, the party has softened its image, in part by distancing itself from the elder Le Pen, a political provocateur who has been convicted multiple times for inciting racial hatred and once famously claimed that the gas chambers were but a “detail” of World War II.

On April 9, a series of dramatic and escalating clashes between the Le Pens came to a head when Le Pen demanded for the first time that her father resign his party posts and drop his candidacy in regional elections. Jean-Marie Le Pen said he would not run this year, but told Reuters on Tuesday that he will not give up his party positions.

“National Front is behind Marine Le Pen, her political line and her appointees,” Rachline wrote on Twitter hours after the National Front leader made her demand.

Stephane Ravier, a French senator and another member of the party’s young guard, went further, attacking Jean-Marie Le Pen for “jeopardizing the party” and wishing him “a happy retirement.”

The feud has exacerbated a fissure in the party between older activists loyal to Jean-Marie Le Pen and a new generation of far-right politicians hungry for mainstream respectability. Under the younger Le Pen, who replaced her father as party president in 2011, the National Front has achieved unprecedented success at the polls, and even made inroads among French Jews, some of whom have been won over by her harsh rhetoric against Muslims.

According to a poll last year among 1,095 self-identified Jews, the National Front earned 13.5 percent of the Jewish vote in 2012 presidential elections, more than doubling its share from the previous presidential contest five years earlier.

Le Pen has insisted repeatedly that the real enemy of French Jews is not the National Front but Islamic fundamentalism, against which she has claimed the party is “your best shield.” She has also chastised National Front figures who made anti-Semitic statements. Last year, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s blog was temporarily taken offline on Le Pen’s orders because he said in a post that a Jewish singer should go “in the oven.”

Yet many French Jews remain suspicious of the National Front, noting that until this month Le Pen kept her father as a candidate and honorary president of the party. Her recent break with her father has not changed the official policy of the CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish communities, which has long maintained that Jean-Marie Le Pen is a dangerous figure unworthy of elected office.

Le Pen’s break with her father is “indeed a dramatic occurrence,” CRIF President Roger Cukierman told JTA, “but one that occurred at the top, with little effect on the main body of what remains a xenophobic party.”

Still, there are signs that Jewish opposition to the National Front may be softening. In 2011, the Jewish radio station Radio J extended an invitation to Le Pen to appear on its Sunday morning political program — something the station had never done for her father — though it was forced to cancel the interview amid Jewish community outrage. Last week, one prominent Jewish intellectual urged the community to reconsider its policy of avoidance.

“To advise France’s Jewish establishment, I’d argue against reducing National Front to what it has been until now,” said Daniel Dayan, a noted anthropologist and emeritus director of research at France’s National Center for Scientific Research.

Dayan said the party is changing and the community must take that into account.

“France’s Jewish establishment may find itself facing a National Front in a position of power before long,” he said.

Under Le Pen, the National Front has achieved record success at the polls. In 2012, a year after Le Pen replaced her father as party leader, she received 17.9 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential elections, surpassing her father’s best electoral result from 2002.

In last year’s elections for the European Parliament, the National Front won 24.8 of the vote, compared to 6.3 percent in 2009, when Jean-Marie Le Pen was still boss. In last month’s regional elections, National Front received 22.2 percent of the vote in the second round of balloting, edging the ruling Socialists of President Francois Hollande and finishing behind only the center-right UMP.

To Dayan, the surge in popularity is changing the party from within.

“Telling anti-Semitic jokes in a party made up of six members and someone’s grandmother is one thing, Dayan said. “Leading a movement with 10 million supporters is another.”

Le Pen picks fight with father amid party’s surging Jewish support Read More »

Netanyahu, Herzog hold secret meeting over unity government

Leave a Comment / Israel /

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met secretly with opposition leader Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union, according to an Israeli news report.

The meeting took place a few days ago, Israeli journalist Ayala Hasson of Israel’s Channel 1 reported Monday. No official coalition talks have been held between Netanyahu’s rightist Likud Party and the center-left Zionist Union.

Netanyahu told a senior Likud official in recent days that he has not ruled out forming a unity government, Haaretz reported, without naming the official.

Channel 1 reported that Netanyahu and Herzog met several days ago without telling close aides. Likud and Zionist Union denied that such a meeting took place.

It is believed that a unity government would signal to the United States and Europe that Israel is serious about a peace agreement with the Palestinians and would blunt Palestinian moves to bring Israel to the International Criminal Court.

Netanyahu, Herzog hold secret meeting over unity government Read More »

Yearning for a Redeemed World; Striving in this World!

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Culture, Holidays /

The world, as we know it, is an illusion; true reality is much deeper than we know in our existence. The only reality is what is always present, the presence that exists in any location, any time, and any situation. While religion steers us to grasp deeper levels to existence, it is also a  guide that allows people to embrace the concrete illusion while allowing us to transcend it.

There have been a few individuals who have managed to live in the realms of sky and earth. One of them was Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, a force behind twentieth century Jewish renewal. I recall a moment several years ago when I was immersed in a very intense campaign. I represented an Orthodox stance on a major issue and other denominational leaders stood in slightly different positions. Reb Zalman called me. I was on a bus so I couldn’t hear him so well but he kept repeating “Achdus Yisrael! Achdus Yisrael!” (We need Jewish Unity). There was such a spiritual fervency and richness to his advocacy. It felt as though he neither wanted to hear nor be heard, but rather to have a meeting inside of a concept, a gathering within a value.

Each person should strive to be a tzaddik, a wise soul, living both in the ideal world but also in this broken world, in the mundane and the holy, in the weekday and the Sabbath. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz wrote:

In Jewish thought, the holy person is known as a tzaddik –a word with many connotations. The Talmud describes one whose conduct is in accord with religious tradition as a tzaddik. Over time, the term has come to mean someone larger than life, a human being with a truly sublime presence. As the seminal work in Chabad Chasidut, the Tanya, tells us, for the tzaddik, spiritual and worldly desires are all connected with the divine (My Rebbe, 2).

This requires enormous discipline. Even more, a shift in perception is required. Martin Buber explained:

To Hasidism, the true meaning of life is revealed in the deed. Here, even more distinctly and profoundly than in early Christianity, what matters is not what is being done, but the fact that every act is carried out in sanctity – that is, with God-oriented intent – is a road to the heart of the world. There is nothing that is evil in itself; every passion can become a virtue, every inclination a “vehicle of God” (On Judaism, 47-48).

What is remarkable about the Jewish path toward illumination is that it is both public and private; collective yet intimate. Before going out, we must turn in. Our holy interior is often where we find our greatest fears, imperfections, pains, and struggles. Consider Leonard Cohen’s words “There is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.” Those cracks in us provide real possibility for illumination.

Once we have the self-awareness and humility to see ourselves, understand ourselves, and control ourselves, we can engage in public leadership. We will start to notice that the opportunities to do good will start landing before us constantly. Then there is only one option: mitzvah ha-ba le-yadcha—if a mitzvah fall into your hand, seize it (Mechilta, Bo).

The Jewish path is unique because Jews are so strong in our convictions, yet still so open to other views. Consider Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ explanation:

Moral truths are absolute but not universal. They are covenantal, meaning we are called to live them out, not in the same way, but each culture and faith in its own way. God reaches out to us as Jews, asking us to be true to the covenant of Sinai, bringing the Divine presence into the world through the lives we lead, the relationships we form, the homes we build, the communities we create, and the ideals we pass on to those we bring into the world. Ours is not the only way to live, but it is the Jewish way – the particular example that illustrates the general rule that you can be different and yet human, strangers and yet the beloved children of God. I know of no other faith that has taught this principle so clearly, so consistently, so courageously. The Jewish people in its very being constitutes a living protest against a world of hated, violence and war – the world of the palace in flames (Letter in the Scroll, 97)

Our thought cannot remain in the realm of the theoretical. There needs to be action Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik understood the importance of modern leadership but he also may have relegated the majority of Jewish thought to the abstract realm in a way that held Modern Orthodoxy back:

The foundation of foundation and the pillar of halakhic thought is not the practical ruling but the determination of the theoretical Halakhah.  Therefore, many of the greatest halakhic men avoided and still avoid serving in rabbinical posts.  They rather join themselves to the group of those who are reluctant to render practical decisions.  And if necessity – which is not to be decried – compels them to disregard their preference and to render practical decisions, this is only a small, insignificant responsibility which does not stand at the center of their concerns. The theoretical Halakhah, not the practical decision, the ideal creation, not the empirical one, represent the longing of halakhic man (Halakhic Man, 24).

The stakes are high in this life. We can’t merely seek the calm and quiet path but must rather pursue the path toward the ultimate good. In Hobbes’ Leviathan, the end goal is peace not justice. The pursuit is not toward the good or just society as Plato or Aristotle would have it but rather to society order that stops the blood-shed. Can we shoot for more than a less violent world?

Today, we must reawaken ourselves to seek out our inner greatness: accepting challenges, failures, pains, and struggles to live in the real world and fight for a better world while keeping our eyes on the dream of utopia, the vision of our ancestors of a redeemed world. Each of us has the potential for greatness. Further, each of us is mandated to unlock our inner potential to let our light flourish and help bring redemption.

 

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the Executive Director of the Valley Beit Midrash, the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Founder and CEO of The Shamayim V’Aretz Institute and the author of seven books on Jewish ethics.  Newsweek named Rav Shmuly one of the top 50 rabbis in America.”

Yearning for a Redeemed World; Striving in this World! Read More »

Top U.S. negotiator tells Israeli journalists: Final Iran deal will be signed by June 30

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Iran and the world powers will reach a comprehensive final agreement on curbing Iran’s nuclear program by the June 30 deadline, the top U.S. negotiator in the talks told Israeli journalists.

A diplomatic negotiated solution is the best option to slow Iran’s nuclear program, Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman said during a briefing Monday with Israel’s diplomatic reporters. She said a military strike by Israel or the United States would only set back Iran’s nuclear program by two years.

“You can’t bomb their nuclear know-how, and they will rebuild everything,” Sherman said in the conference call.

“We think we are headed for a good deal. Is it a perfect deal? No. There is no such thing as a perfect deal.”

The briefing is part of the Obama administration’s efforts to garner support in Israel and among Jewish-Americans for the framework agreement signed earlier this month with Iran.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has expressed opposition to the agreement, saying it would threaten Israel’s survival. He has called on the international community to negotiate a better agreement. Sherman acknowledged that Netanyahu’s concerns are legitimate.

She told the Israeli reporters that the United States remains committed to Israel’s security.

“Israel’s right to exist and Iran’s actions in the region will be dealt with on a parallel track,” Sherman said. “The U.S. will consult Israel on what it needs for its security.”

Sherman reiterated the Obama administration’s promise that a final deal would ensure that Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon.

Top U.S. negotiator tells Israeli journalists: Final Iran deal will be signed by June 30 Read More »

Children of Holocaust survivors more concerned about Iran nuclear threat, study finds

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A new study in Israel shows that adult children of Holocaust survivors are more concerned about the threat of a nuclear Iran than those whose parents were not survivors.

“Transmitting the Sum of All Fears: Iranian Nuclear Threat Salience Among Offspring of Holocaust Survivors,” a Bar-Ilan University study written by Dr. Amit Shrira, was published in the journal “Psychological Trauma,” an American Psychological Association journal dedicated to the study of trauma and its aftermath.

Shrira first studied 106 people, with 63 born after World War II ended in 1945 and whose parents lived under a Nazi or pro-Nazi regime, and a comparison group of 43 also born after 1945, but whose parents, of European origin, either immigrated to Israel before the war or fled to countries that were not under Nazi occupation. An identical second sample of 450 people gave the same results.

The study found that second-generation Holocaust survivors exhibit greater preoccupation with the Iranian nuclear threat and are more sensitive to nuclear threat. The more they are interested in the subject, the study found, the more general anxiety they report. Also, second-generation Holocaust survivors had a more ominous outlook on the world in general.

“In second generation survivors we most often see that they are a group with resilience and mental resources, and they generally exhibit good functioning on a daily basis,” Shrira said in a statement. “But they do have vulnerabilities which can be manifested during times of stress.”

Children of Holocaust survivors more concerned about Iran nuclear threat, study finds Read More »

Israeli music education start-up raises $5 million in new funding

Leave a Comment / Israel /

An Israeli start-up company that creates music education technology has raised $5 million in new funding.

Tonara raised the funding from Baidu, the maker of China’s leading search engine, and Israel-based Carmel Ventures, a repeat investor.

The Israeli company offers two apps: Tonara, which listens and automatically flips sheet music pages during rehearsals and performances, and Wolfie, a teaching and evaluation tool for music instructors using an iPad. The company also has partnerships with music publishers.

The company, under the guidance of Baidu, plans to launch Wolfie in China, according to TechCrunch, which also reported that Tonara has plans to unveil new products and services designed for music students and teachers in China.

Baidu’s senior director of corporate development, Peter Fang, also will join Tonara’s board, the Israeli business daily Globes reported.

“Tonara’s mission is to redefine the way music is taught, learned and practiced around the world by bringing music education into the digital age,” Tonara CEO Guy Bauman told Globes. “We are excited by Baidu’s endorsement of Tonara’s vision and potential. The new funding will enable us to scale and reach music students and teachers globally. “

Israeli music education start-up raises $5 million in new funding Read More »

Netanyahu phones Putin to object to missile sale to Iran

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Russian President Vladimir Putin to express “grave concerns” regarding the potential future sale of S-300 missile systems to Iran.

During the phone call on Tuesday, Netanyahu said the sale would encourage Iranian aggression in the Middle East.

In a statement released later in the day, Netanyahu said the “dangerous” Iran framework deal reached April 2 in Switzerland was responsible for prompting Putin to green-light the sale.

“This sale of advanced weaponry to Iran is the direct result of the dangerous deal on the table between Iran and the P5+1,” he said in the statement, referring to the six world powers negotiating with Iran. “Can anyone still seriously claim that the deal with Iran will enhance security in the Middle East?”

Netanyahu is considering traveling to Moscow to meet with Putin personally on the issue, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.

On Monday, Putin lifted a ban on the sale of advanced surface-to-air defense missiles to Iran that had been in place since 2007. The move prompted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to phone Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to protest any future missile sales.

Netanyahu phones Putin to object to missile sale to Iran Read More »

Nazi-hunter group praises Germany’s efforts to track down ex-Nazis

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center praised Germany’s recent efforts in tracking down former Nazis while noting a general lack of progress in finding them throughout the rest of the world.

The organization’s 14th Annual Status Report on the Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, released Monday, said Germany has found dozens of former Nazis since 2011. In the past year, cases against most of them have been referred to prosecutors; two have been brought to court.

“The most important positive results achieved during the period under review [April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015] were obtained in Germany, in the wake of the implementation by the local judicial authorities of a legal strategy, which paves the way for the conviction of practically any person who served either in a Nazi death camp or in the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units),” the report said.

By contrast, Eastern European countries have not shown the political will to locate and punish former Nazis living there, according to the report.

“The campaign led by the Baltic countries to distort the history of the Holocaust and obtain official recognition that the crimes of the Communists are equal to those of the Nazis is another major obstacle to the prosecution of those responsible for the crimes of the Shoa,” the report said.

More than 3,500 new investigations have been opened in the 14 years the Wiesenthal Center has been issuing its annual reports.

“Despite the somewhat prevalent assumption that it is too late to bring Nazi murderers to justice, the figures clearly prove otherwise, and we are trying to ensure that at least several of these criminals will be brought to trial during the coming years,” said the Wiesenthal Center’s Israel director, Efraim Zuroff.

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