Republicans launch bid for Jewish support in 2020

Other items in today’s column include:
* Just six more days for students to apply for JNF Alternative Break in Israel
* Jewish Veg leader discusses Parashat Noach and the right to eat meat
* Political bytes

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO –  Social media users in San Diego County and around the country soon will be bombarded with the Republican Jewish Coalition’s opening salvo in an effort to reelect Donald Trump in 2020 – a 30-second video spot contending it is a “shanda” (disgrace) how leading Democrats are attacking Israel.

The text of the 30-second video ad, with the accompanying photos in parentheses, goes like this: “Leading Democrats (Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer) have completely turned their back on Israel.  Democratic leaders  (Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders) cozy up to fringe groups who attack Israel.  Front-running Democrats are campaigning on cutting critical aid to the world’s only Jewish state.  The radical left has taken over the Democratic party (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Warren, Sanders) and now they are moving to undo decades of bipartisan support for America’s crucial ally (flag of Israel crumbling).  Just how low can they go? (Ilhan Omar, Sanders, Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke).  It’s sad what is happening to the Democratic party.  (“Shanda” stamped over photos of the Democrats.)  “it’s a Shanda.”

We were surprised  that Chuck Schumer’s image was included in the ad, as the Jewish Senate Minority Leader from New York has been a consistent supporter of Israel. Given Sanders’ suggestion that aid money be taken from Israel and given to Gaza, we were not surprised that he was described as anti-Israel, even though he too is Jewish.  At the same time, we noted with interest that neither Vice President Joe Biden, nor San Diego Jewish World-endorsee Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota was included in the sweeping anti-Israel allegations.  We believe Klobuchar is both a pro-Israel Democrat and a candidate who stands for inclusive American values.

Just before Passover, the Republican National Coalition had a convention in which its chairman Norm Coleman, a former U.S. Senator from Minnesota, outlined what he believed were the positive talking points that might woo Jews to the Republican cause.

Using the familiar “Dayenu” refrain from the Passover seder, he said any of the following acts by President Trump “would have been enough” to merit support.  In Coleman’s words, Trump:

* Rolled back business-killing regulations to unleash an economic boom across all sectors of our economy.
* Put two conservative judges (Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh) on the U.S. Supreme Court.
* Appointed Nikki Haley as ambassador to the United Nations unleashing a powerful message that we will not tolerate the U.N’s anti-Israel bias.
* Stopped giving U.S. tax dollars to the PLO to be payed to terrorist who killed Americans and Israelis.
* Closed the Palestinian Liberation Organization office in Washington, D.C.
* Been the first sitting U.S. President to pray at the Western Wall.
* Canceled the [President Barack] Obama Iran deal that guaranteed Iran a pass to build a nuclear weapon.
* Recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights
* Moved America’s embassy to Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.

On Oct. 29, Ron Klein, chairman of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, issued the following statement, following Sanders’ suggestion that some of the U.S. military aid to Israel be reduced in favor of giving humanitarian aid to Gaza:

“We strongly support the mutually beneficial military and security relationship between the U.S. and Israel, as well as the continuation of full military aid, per the 10-year U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), as agreed to by the Obama administration.

“We do not support reducing or conditioning assistance to Israel. We agree with all of the major presidential Democratic candidates for their support for a two-state solution and opposition to the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.”

The JDCA also said it opposed annexation of any part of the West Bank on the grounds that it would impede realization of a two-state solution with independent Israel and Palestine living side by side.

We’ll be hoping and watching for a JDCA response to the RJC “Shanda” ad and Coleman’s “Dayenu” praise for Trump.
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Just six more days for students to apply for JNF Alternative Break in Israel
The application deadline for Jewish National Fund-USA’s (JNF-USA) Alternative Winter Break is set to close on November 10^th as college students prepare to combine social justice and travel on their next visit to Israel.

“I’m looking forward to going to Israel with Alternative Winter Break and experiencing it now as a professional with a career,” said San Diego State University alumna and Hillcrest resident Hannah Feldman. “Going on Alternative Break and working the land was an experience I won’t forget, and I look forward to the new experiences and memories to come as I go to Israel now that I have a career and more responsibilities.”

JNF-USA has been running Alternative Break trips to Israel for 15 years. The organization has brought 2,000 Jewish college students and young adults ages 18-24 to get their hands dirty while making a difference for the land and people of Israel. JNF-USA has consistently met the needs of Jewish college students who want to experience Israel by volunteering. Through JNF-USA partnerships across Israel, their participants are given access to different types of volunteerism, which include helping the environment, working with children, supporting people with special needs, and assisting minority groups.

To register for Alternative Winter Break, visit jnf.org/break.

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Jewish Veg leader discusses Parashat Noach and the right to eat meat

Jeffrey Cohan, executive director of Jewish Veg, ironically was the Shabbat speaker at Congregation Beth Israel over the weekend when the Reform congregation studied parashat Noach, in which humans were granted the right to eat meat.  (Genesis 9:3: Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you: like the green herbage I have given you everything.)  Cohan told the congregation that “permission to eat meat was given to us very reluctantly and was given to us with restrictions.  {Genesis 9:4: But flesh; with its soul its blood you shall not eat.)

“Moreover,” Cohan stated, “the animals who were created to be our companions began to fear and dread us, as human beings became their killers. It is the case that, for the most part, wild animals do in fact fear and dread us.”  Cohen referenced the following Torah section:

(Genesis 2:18-20: It is not good that man be alone; I will make him a helper corresponding to him.  Now Hashem God had formed out of the ground every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call each one; and whatever the man called each living creature, that remained its name.  And the man assigned names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky and to every beast of the field; but as for man, he did not find a helper corresponding to him.”

Besides the fact that permission to eat meat was only reluctantly given, Cohen said there were two other important Torah-based reasons for humans to switch to plant-based diets.  According to Cohen, a plant-based diet was God’s original intention as stated in Genesis 1:29: God said, ‘Behold, I have given to you all herbage yielding seed that is on the surface of the entire earth, and every tree that has seed-yielding fruit; it shall be yours for food.

Additionally, he added, there is a “Torah mandate to treat animals with compassion (tza’ar baalei Chayim) which is being flagrantly violated in modern animal agriculture.”

(Above Torah quotations from the Stone edition of the Art Scroll Tanach.)
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Political bytes
* Community activist Ray Lutz has dropped out of the race to succeed retiring Congresswoman Susan Davis in the 53^rd CD.  He explained: “I believe my time will be better spent working to make the Election Auditing service — AuditEngine.org — a reality rather than pursue this seat. I know I can be successful in creating the cloud-based auditing service to improve our confidence in elections nationwide, but winning the seat is not be a sure bet. With several eager candidates running for the seat, including Georgette Gomez and Sara Jacobs, it seems sage that the seat will be filled with a capable representative.” He added, in a news release, “I simply can’t provide the gender diversity that we continue to need in Congress, and these candidates will do well to represent progressive values.”

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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com