Jewish leaders defend Obama on email smears

[Adelante]

Jewish leaders fight back on Obama smears

The anonymous anti-Obama email campaign has been particularly viral in Jewish political circles (one of the ones accusing him of being some sort of Manchurian candidate was actually translated into Hebrew), and a broad group of prominent Jewish leaders just put out an open letter pushing back:

January 15, 2008

An Open Letter to the Jewish Community:

As leaders of the Jewish community, none of whose organizations will endorse or oppose any candidate for President, we feel compelled to speak out against certain rhetoric and tactics in the current campaign that we find particularly abhorrent. Of particular concern, over the past several weeks, many in our community have received hateful emails that use falsehood and innuendo to mischaracterize Senator Barack Obama’s religious beliefs and who he is as a person.

These tactics attempt to drive a wedge between our community and a presidential candidate based on despicable and false attacks and innuendo based on religion. We reject these efforts to manipulate members of our community into supporting or opposing candidates.

Attempts of this sort to mislead and inflame voters should not be part of our political discourse and should be rebuffed by all who believe in our democracy. Jewish voters, like all voters, should support whichever candidate they believe would make the best president. We urge everyone to make that decision based on the factual records of these candidates, and nothing less.

Sincerely,

William Daroff, Vice President, United Jewish Communities

Nathan J. Diament, Director, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

Abraham Foxman, National Director, Anti-Defamation League

Richard S. Gordon, President, American Jewish Congress

David Harris, Executive Director, American Jewish Committee

Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center

Rabbi David Saperstein, Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

Phyllis Snyder, President, National Council of Jewish Women

Hadar Susskind, Washington Director, Jewish Council for Public Affairs

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0108/Beating_back_the_smears.html

[William769]

1. And so they should.

Fair is fair when it comes to all candidates.

[Adelante]

7. Yep

I realize these things are everywhere, but it didn't occur to me the Jewish community would be especially targeted with them. I'm very glad to see the leaders stepping up, since apparently it's been the case.

[aquart]

10. Who else would care? Of course they're the targets.

However, before anyone else notices what's obvious to me, not everybody knows Hebrew well enough to do translations.

There have been uneasy relations between blacks and Jews way before Obama. I would think that someone felt that informing his community of that link between Wright and Farrakhan was performing a public service.

But then, ultra-orthodox communities wouldn't be thrilled with a woman for president, either.

What they fear most is being linked to this in any way. There are too many people who would use it to justify acts than none of us would approve.

[Adelante]

13. I've been thinking fundies, actually, in any specific sense

But otherwise all over the place.

[DLnyc]

18. Classic right-wing/republican technique: get various groups to fear and

distrust each other. And if two of those groups happen to historically vote strongly Democratic, all the better.

Good to see some among us are wising up to this crap!

I applaud these leaders!

[ursi]

2. Thanks for posting. I hate those negative emails. THey are hate-emails.

[aquart]

11. Or fear mails.

Frightened people spreading their fears. "Hate" is a very easy designation, but it actually takes much more energy than fear. Fear is essentially passive, hate is aggressive.

People hesitate to spread "hate." They know it's nasty. But fear? Warning people that their worst fears are about to be realized? That's not the least bit hard to do. Self-justifying, even.

The only reasonable response to an aggressive emotion like "hate" is a matching or more powerful aggression. So, unless you are prepared to escalate your response, designating this as "hate mail" isn't useful. It can only make you feel impotent. But understanding that it's FEAR, means there are many positive actions that can be taken to address and calm the anxiety.

[cali]

3. good on them.

I'm glad to see them stepping up to the plate on this.

[Cha]

4. Begs the question..who's

responsible for this crap?

I'm really happy to see the Jewish Leaders defending Obama..this might have The Law Of Unintended Consequences shoved up the arse of those responsible.

[magatte]

14. I don`t knw but I`ve seen many Clinton fans falling over themselves to gloat over this smear...

Enough is enough.

[David Zephyr]

15. True.

You noticed, too.

[William769]

16. Heres a die hard Clinton fan.

See post #1.

[Cha]

17. I'm not surprised, although, I haven't

seen it or I would have told them what I thought of their gloating.

[Hardrada]

5. This is positive. We need things on the up and up!

[David Zephyr]

6. Kick!

K&R.

[Jane Austin]

8. Good for them!

Bravo.

[Mike03]

9. Thanks for this post

I'm so happy to see this assertive and responsible response.

[creeksneakers2]

12. Its great they did this

I wonder why all this stuff is in the Politico though. The Politico seems to be trying to set off an inter-party war among the Democrats.