Can Do! from page 36

Guest Column

Springing To Action
Once more, Jews stepped up and mobilized when disaster struck the
Eastern seaboard in the wake of Superstorm Sandy in late October.
We've seen Jewish compassion rise to confront crisis so many times
before over the past decade — Hamas rockets in southern Israel, a tsu-
nami in Southeast Asia, hurricanes in New Orleans and Haiti, a deadly
shooting at a Colorado movie theater, a senior-citizen apartment com-
plex fire in West Bloomfield, a suicide bombing against Israeli tourists in
Bulgaria, a violent attack on the Indian port city of Mumbai.
Going back to biblical times, Jews know up close the pain and suffer-
ing caused by acts of terror or whims of nature.
On Nov. 15, Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) stepped up
and authorized a $5 million terror relief fund for endangered Israelis.
The fund works in concert with the Jewish Agency for Israel, the
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, World ORT and the
Israel Trauma Coalition. Services include trauma counseling, financial
help, portable bomb shelters and relocating children from danger. The
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit designated $225,000 for the
JFNA effort. For its part, Israel opened nearby hospitals to Gazans and
sent truckloads of medical supplies and food into the war-torn strip.
Earlier, JFNA gave $500,000 to assist Superstorm Sandy victims in
New York and New Jersey. The larger Jewish community also provided
a big dose of superstorm succor. People with medical training arrived at
evacuation sites. People trained in disaster response came to assist clean-
up efforts and utility crews. Others handed out food and clothing — or
lent a hand at shelters. Yeshiva University students tapped the student
government budget to pay for supplies distributed on New York City's
Lower East Side. Synagogues worked together to assure no congregation
stayed dark. The Masbia network of kosher soup kitchens in Brooklyn
quadrupled its daily serving of 500 meals a day.
And all three major Judaic streams jumped into the eye of the storm
to show their unbridled yearning to put social justice into action.

Vigor Times Two
The experiment of a new Conservative congregation sharing the facilities
of an established Reform
congregation thanks to a
joint operating agreement
marks it first two years
with spiritual buttons
rightfully bursting open
with pride.
As B'nai Israel
Synagogue celebrated its
second anniversary with its
first congregational dinner The two congregations share a
this past Sunday at the Kol building on Walnut Lake Road.
Ami-B'nai Israel building
on Walnut Lake Road, the notion of "where there's a will, there's a way"
really comes to the fore.
B'nai Israel congregants lost their home when Congregation Shaarey
Zedek sold its West Bloomfield building and consolidated operations
on its Southfield campus in 2010. The new congregation formed largely
from former Shaarey Zedek B'nai Israel congregants, who looked to
regroup instead of falling into the oblivion of closed houses of worship.
More than that, B'nai Israel Synagogue not only has become self-
sustaining through dues and donations, but also has gotten together
with the Kol Ami family to break bread together at Shabbat lunch. The
two congregations also engage in joint programming and holiday activi-
ties. And they've co-led a fundraising campaign to reconfigure the West
Bloomfield building housing the two synagogues.
As B'nai Israel pursues a new rabbi to eventually replace Jonathan
Berger, the Hillel Day School rabbi-in-residence who took on the B'nai
Israel spiritual leader role in a temporary capacity, it's exciting to see two
synagogues from different streams of Judaism join religious and business
forces to enrich the lives of everyone associated with this daunting, but
certainly uplifting endeavor.

This Thanksgiving, remember the force field of enduring spirit that
has kept us going as a people no matter what the challenge.

❑

Dissecting The Obama Vote

S

o what do Israelis know that we
don't know? The question is just as
valid if one turns it on its head and
asks: "What do Americans know that Israelis
don't?"
The subject addressed by these questions
is President Obama. The American
Jewish body politic believes that
the president is pro-Israel while
Israelis could be described as tea
partiers vis-a-vis their opposition
to the Democratic president.
There is, of course, nothing new
in this. Obama has always evoked
much skepticism from Israelis even
when he was only a candidate in
2008; and that skepticism only
grew after he took office. An elec-
tion poll in Israel soon before the
2012 vote, conducted by the Times
of Israel, revealed that 45 percent of Israelis
would have voted for the Republican chal-
lenger, Mitt Romney, while only 29 percent
would vote for Obama. Twenty-six percent
had no preference.
Meanwhile, in the actual
U.S. election, exit polls
reported that Obama
took 69 percent of the
Jewish vote while Romney
managed 30 percent,
historically about aver-
age for a Republican. The
highest percentage of
President
the Jewish vote garnered
Obama
by Republicans went to
President Eisenhower,
who managed a little more than 40 per-
cent, while President Reagan reached about
39-40 percent.
True, Obama "slipped" from the 78 percent
he received in 2008; but given that 78 per-
cent is an almost unbelievably high percent-
age, the drop, frankly, is quite meaningless
because 69 percent is still a robust show
of support. Indeed, the 78 percent was the
second-highest ethnic vote of support for
Obama, second only to the black vote that in
the 2008 and 2012 elections was in the 90s.

At Issue

So why is Israel such a "red" country when it
comes to Obama? The issues are numerous
and varied:
Shortly after taking office, Obama gave his
famous "Cairo speech," which seemed to be
one-sided and which Israel supporters felt
"overreached" in trying to heal what Obama
felt were political wounds festering in U.S.-
Arab relations.
While on a Middle East tour after his elec-
tion, he did not visit Israel. In one of the
presidential debates, he defended himself,
stating he visited Israel as a candidate; but
that was written off as a campaign tactic.
He has treated Israeli Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu with what some believe
is contempt, refusing to meet with him and,
once, letting Netanyahu cool his heels by
keeping him waiting in a White House office.
A cerebral man, Obama has not shown any
"passion" for the Jewish state; yes, he has
pledged that he has Israel's back,
but Israelis don't believe him.
Contrast the president's promise
against the following statement
made by his vice president, Joe
Biden: "Were I an Israeli, were I a
Jew, I would not contract out my
security to anyone, even a loyal,
loyal, loyal friend like the United
States."
The president could not have
been very happy with good 01' Joe
given the implications of Biden's
remarks. Years earlier, Biden said
he was a Zionist, adding that he did not have
to be Jewish or an Israeli to be one.
Supporters will argue that Obama may not
be "passionate," but he has been supportive
of Israel with the military weapons he has
provided, the promotion of joint military
exercises and financial aid.

The Jewish Trend

Opposition to Obama also is a result from the
continuing political evolution of American
Jews. The importance of Israel as an issue
to American Jews is lessening. Younger
American Jews do not have the fervor for the
Jewish state that past generations had. They
are more concerned about abortion, gay and
women's rights, the environment, immigration
and other social issues.
One poll in the U.S., conducted by
Democrats, showed that only 10 percent
of Jews in this country considered Israel
among its top priorities. Indeed, American
Jews are a deep "true blue" compared to
the deep red of Israeli politics on the issue
of Obama.
So despite our claims to be "one family,"
as the song says, it ain't necessarily so. We
differ on perhaps the most important issue
of all because it involves the security of
Israel and, possibly, its very existence, if one
factors in Iran.
All of which leads to the question, "Nu,
what to do?" about this gulf. Not much can
be done because each would resent the
other getting involved in its politics.
The only thing one can hope for is that,
in making their decisions, American Jews
might consider, because we are purportedly
mishpachah, family, the political views of
Israelis. After all, it is their blood and lives
that are on the line.

❑

Berl Falbaum of West Bloomfield is an author and a

public relations executive who teaches journalism

part-time at Wayne State University, Detroit. He is a

former political reporter.

November 22 • 2012

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