continued from page 13
Jews in the D
14 | MARCH 5 • 2020
olam, and it’
s about revering the
miracle that is the state of Israel,
which — for their generation —
was a dream fulfilled before their
very eyes.
”
In Michigan, seen by most
pundits as a bellwether state for
the election at large, Bloomberg
is courting voters like Sandi
Reitelman, one of the estimated
70,000 Jews who live in Metro
Detroit, and buying ads in the
Jewish News.
“The Jewish values of educa-
tion, caring for others, the feeling
that we are a family, that we’
re
honest, is what’
s really important
to me,” Reitelman, who lives in
Birmingham, tells
the Jewish News. “I
have to believe that
Bloomberg believes
and lives those val-
ues, given his philan-
thropic emphasis and
what he did for New
York City. It makes me all the
more open to Mike Bloomberg
as a candidate.”
Stuart Logan, a 63-year-
old lawyer from Bloomfield
Township, says, “He focuses on
what he can do for
others; he’
s obviously
not in it for himself.”
Bloomberg has been
using his money
for “menschlichkeit”
(humanity) and not
to serve his own ego, Logan rea-
sons. “He’
s a responsible guy, a
lot of his policies resonate with
me and I think he’
s open-heart-
ed.”
But Logan has some choice
words for the other member
of the tribe vying for the high-
est seat in the land. “Under no
circumstance would I vote for
Sanders,” he states. “Sanders
has traditionally minimized his
Jewish contacts. It’
s never been
something that’
s animated him.”
BERNIE SANDERS’
SUPPORT
Sanders, the longtime Vermont
politician, current senator and
Independent with a lengthy
history of caucusing with
Democrats, is by all accounts
the front-runner. He amassed an
early delegate lead in the nation’
s
first primary contests and has
raised more in individual con-
tributions than anyone running
for president this year, while
championing progressive policies
like Medicare for All and climate
change legislation.
Sanders was raised by Jewish-
American parents. His father,
Elias, was an immigrant from
the former Austro-Hungarian
Empire who evaded the atroc-
ities of the Holocaust, while
his mother Dorothy was born
in New York to Jewish Russian
immigrant parents. Though he
leads a secular lifestyle, Sanders
refers to his connection to the
religion — although he has harsh
words for Israel, and announced
he would skip the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee’
s
annual conference held March
1-3 in Washington, D.C.
“I am very proud of being
Jewish. I actually lived in Israel
for some months. But what I
happen to believe is that right
now, sadly, tragically, in Israel,
through [Prime Minister] Bibi
Netanyahu, you have a reaction-
ary racist who is now running
that country,” Sanders declared
during the Feb. 25 Democratic
debate in Charleston, South
Carolina. “I happen to believe
that what our foreign policy in
the Mideast should be about is
absolutely protecting the inde-
pendence and security of Israel,
but you cannot ignore the suffer-
ing of the Palestinian people.”
In Detroit’
s New Center
neighborhood, a group of young
Jewish community organizers
“Bernie embodies a kind of
dialogue with Jewish elders
that I wish we could have
more oft
en around here.”
— SUSANNAH GOODMAN ON BERNIE SANDERS
ANTHONY LANZILOTE
Stuart Logan
Sandi
Reitelman
ANTHONY LANZILOTE