MATTHEW DORF

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Washin on
/-
ice President Al Gore is try-
ing to define the role of reli-
gion in public policy as he
officially begins his campaign
for president. And Jewish supporters of
the vice president are trying to recon-
cile Gore's decision to make religion
central to his campaign with his long
history of support for Jewish causes.
If Gore is going to emerge from
/--
President Clinton s shadow, he's going
to need some new issues of his own,
supporters say.
With the American people telling
pollsters that they want the next presi-
dent to be more "moral," Gore's cam-
paign sees a winning message in religion.
"The Democratic Party is going to
') take back God this time," Elaine
Kamarck, a senior Gore policy adviser,
recently told the Boston Globe.
Casting aside strong opposition from
some of his key Jewish supporters, Gore
last month called for the expansion of a
federal program despised by most in the
Jewish community and opposed by
Clinton himself.
In one of his first major campaign
speeches, Gore focused on religion
and pledged, if elected president, to
expand "charitable choice" programs,
which encourage religious institutions
to provide federal welfare programs.
With this speech, Gore inserted
into the campaign an issue that
Democrats traditionally have been
loath to use to attract voters.
/-
By all accounts, Gore is walking a
fine line in his quest to woo religious
voters into the Democratic camp
without alienating traditional con-
stituencies, including Jewish voters.
With Gore now in full campaign
mode — he formally announced his
candidacy for president on June 16 —
his focus on religion stunned many in
the Jewish community.
Talk of religion in politics makes
many in the Jewish community
uncomfortable because usually it does
not mean Judaism.
Writing in the New York Times,
author A.N. Wilson said Gore's May
24 speech on charitable choice offered
a cure for what the vice president
\_ called "ordinary Americans" who "have
/- been turned off to politics." Wilson
wrote: "The cure is Christianity."
To be sure, Gore is not the type of
politician who has worn religion on
his sleeve.
But in dozens of speeches to Jewish
audiences since he became vice presi-

Religious Wrestling

Gore injects religion into campaign,
sparking anxiety among some Jews.

'

Vice President Al Gore waves to supporters
in the town square in Carthage, Tenn.

dent, Gore, who spent a year studying
at divinity school, has frequently
espoused religious themes.
By bringing this to the campaign,
Gore's message sheds some light on
how he plans to become only the sec-
ond sitting vice president this century
to win a presidential election.
Gore's presidency will be a "laborato-
ry for innovation and experimentation,"
said Steve Grossman, former chairman
of the Democratic National Committee.
"That's the kind of president the
American people want as the first presi-
dent of the 21st century," said
Grossman, a longtime Jewish activist
who worked with the vice president and
his staff on the charitable choice speech.
But Grossman's praise for Gore's
innovation does not assuage the fears of
most Jewish groups, which flooded
Gore's office with letters and statements
of protest against charitable choice.

The United Jewish Communities,
the umbrella fund-raising and social
service organization of the Jewish
community, in a policy statement,
criticized the vice president's proposal
as "neither necessary nor helpful."
Gore's plan "will not strengthen the
work of the religious sector in provid-
ing human service, but will likely
undermine the quality of social ser-
vices they provide," said Stephen
Solender, acting president of the UJC.
Last fall, the UJC voted to oppose all
current charitable choice programs
and any attempts to expand them.
Opponents of Gore's proposal
believe Solender's statement will get
noticed in the vice president's office
especially because of the large number
of Gore contributors who sit on feder-
ation boards across the country.
Many Republicans and Democrats
have accused Gore of sounding more

like a conservative Republican — strong
suppOrt for Israel and weak on social
issues — than a moderate Democrat.
Opponents argue that the charitable
choice program will lead to proselytizing
and erosion of the constitutional doc-
trine of separation of church and state.
In the organized Jewish community
only Orthodox and Republican groups
expressed support for the program,
which for example, allows a church to
receive taxpayer money for counseling
that includes religious content.
Rising to Gore's defense, Grossman
defended the vice president's record on
church-state issues and predicted that
this episode "will not cause him any
political damage' in the Jewish com-
munity. Gore's "reservoir of goodwill
will be deep, wide and substantive,"
and based on his record of supporting
church-state separation, Grossman said.
If Gore had no track record with
the Jewish community, some
Democratic activists fear that he
would be in trouble.
But unlike Clinton, who was a rela-
tive unknown in the community when
he ran for the Democratic presidential
nomination in 1992, Gore has a
proven history. He served in the
House of Representatives from 1977-
1985, and then as a senator until
1993 when he became vice president.
As a senator, Gore frequently cham-
pioned the cause of Soviet Jewish pris-
oners. Once he became vice president,
Gore spearheaded U.S. relations with
Russia as the head of a commission
that meets twice a year with the
Russian prime minister.
On Israel, Gore has one of the
strongest voting records. During the
Clinton administration's darkest days
with Israeli -Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu, Gore was the one who
maintained a dialogue with the Israeli
leader, officials said.
"The style of his support for Israel has
progressed the same as the Jewish com-
munity's support for Israel," said Steve
Rabinowitz, a former Clinton White
House aide. He cited Gore's support for
"Israel's aggressive pursuit of peace."
But while Jewish Democratic
activists claim support among Jewish
voters for Gore is as broad as
Clinton's, who received almost 80
percent of the Jewish vote in his two
presidential elections, others believe
it is not as deep.
"He's got a great record with the
Jewish community, a voting record,"
one activist said, trying to draw a dis-
tinction between Gore and
Republican frontrunner George W.
Bush. "Now Gore's got to work it." 1-1

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Detroit Jewish News

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