May the New Year
bring to all our friends
and family
health, joy, prosperity and
everything good in life.
May the coming year be filled with
health and happiness for all our family and friends.
L'Shanah Tovah!
world
Democrats from page 56
at the meeting but asked not to be
identified.
Asked if he would use the same
descriptors for Obama, the congress-
man laughed.
"Let me put it this way: In all of his
abilities and reputation, Biden adds to
what the president brings to the table,'
the unnamed congressman said. "The
team of Biden and Obama are truly
an extremely intelligent, sophisticated
and committed duo confronting
Israel's enemies and Israel's challenges
as her most important and dearest
friend."
Breaking through the perception
that Obama, unlike Biden, does not
have a feeling in his kishkes for Israel
is a sign of the uphill battle facing
Democrats, insiders said.
Republicans say the emphasis on
Jewish outreach underscores the presi-
dent's problems in the community.
"The fact that they have to spend
time and resources shoring up what is
normally a solid Democratic core con-
stituency underscores the challenges
they are facing:' RJC director Matt
Brooks told the New York Times.
The NJDC distributed Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's praise
of Obama for intervening to save the
lives of Israeli diplomats besieged in
Cairo over the weekend. The group
also is noting Obama's pledge to veto
any Palestinian attempt to secure
statehood recognition this month
through the United Nations.
It is touting, too, what Israeli and
American officials have described as
unprecedented closeness on missile
defense and intelligence sharing, as
well as maintaining promised levels of
defense assistance to Israel in the face
of a budget crunch.
Republicans counter that such
assistance should be par for the
course for any president, and the RJC's
Twitter account has created a hashtag
to mock such talk: Obama Lowered
Expectations.
In addition to defending Obama's
Israel record, the Democrats' pushback
strategy involves emphasizing the
president's stance on social and eco-
nomic issues.
There was a largely successful White
House push to get the Jewish groups
that deal with social issues to endorse
much of the jobs creation plan Obama
presented to a skeptical Republican-
led House two weeks ago. LL
GOP Wins Weiner's Seat —
A Jewish Message To Obama?
asgna
May the coming year be filled with
health and happiness for all our family and friends.
L'Shanah Tovah!
HELEN & FRED BROWN
AND FAMILY
41110 ..shishaSe'
May the coming year be filled with
health and happiness for all our family and friends.
L'Shanah Tovah!
Sam and Minnie Berman
58 September 22 2011
JTA — In a blow to Democrats,
Republican candidate Bob Turner
captured the heavily Jewish New
York City congressional district pre-
viously represented by Rep. Anthony
Weiner.
Turner defeated his Democratic
opponent, New York State
Assemblyman David Weprin, in a
special election. With 84 percent
of precincts reporting, Turner led
Weprin by a margin of 54 percent to
46 percent.
The race was closely watched
as a measure of attitudes toward
President Obama, with the Jewish
vote a particular focus of attention.
Former New York City Mayor Ed
Koch, a Democrat, urged voters to
support Turner in order to send a
message of dissatisfaction to Obama
over his policies toward Israel.
Weprin, an Orthodox Jew, initially
led in pre-election polls. But Turner,
a retired television executive who
was a creator of The Jerry Springer
Show, pulled ahead during the past
month.
Turner's victory came despite
the Democrats' strong advantage
in voter registration in the middle-
class Brooklyn and Queens district,
which is 57 percent Democratic
and only 19 percent Republican.
Observers, however, have noted that
the district votes more conservative
than the registration numbers seem
to suggest.
The Republican's tenure in
Congress, however, could be short-
lived. New York State is losing two
congressional seats due to decennial
reapportionment, and many expect
that the seat, which has been vacant
since Weiner's scandal-induced res-
ignation, will be eliminated.
New York's 9th Congressional
District has the fourth-largest Jewish
population of any congressional
district, with some 173,000 Jews,
according to a 2009 report from the
Mandell L. Berman Institute-North
American Jewish Data Bank.
Jerry Skurnik, a partner at the
political consulting firm Prime New
York, told the New York Times that
about a third of the district's active
voters are Jewish.
However, the district's Jewish
demographics are somewhat atypi-
cal, with sizable concentrations of
Orthodox Jews and Russian Jews,
who tend to lean more conservative
in their voting behavior than Jews in
general. _1