16 | MARCH 5 • 2020 

Jews in the D

continued from page 15

about members of the Jewish 
community who would be 
affected by his responses.”

WHAT DO JEWISH 
VOTERS WANT?
For many Jews, fear of 
anti-Semitism runs as a cur-
rent through this election. 
Bloomberg and Sanders 
have both found themselves 
portrayed as conduits for 
enabling such behavior, and 
each could fit into longtime 
contrasting anti-Semitic 
stereotypes: the wealthy plu-
tocrat banker and the revolu-
tionary socialist. Some in the 
party are concerned that the 
issue lies primarily with the 
current president. 
“Donald Trump himself 
represents such an existen-
tial threat,” says Noah Arbit, 
founder of the Michigan 
Democratic Jewish Caucus. 
“He is the most anti-Semit-
ic president since Richard 
Nixon.” 
He cites a recent spike in 
anti-Semitic violence as a pri-
mary concern for Jewish vot-
ers, more so than support for 
Israel. “We have to do a better 
job of parsing out anti-Sem-
itism and anti-Israel,
” Arbit 
says. “We all have different, 
diverse opinions about Israel 
and how to support it.
”
Arbit is not formally 
endorsing a Democratic can-
didate but appeared to show 
his support for Bloomberg 
while speaking at the “Jews for 
Bloomberg” event in Franklin 
and working to collect names 
for his campaign.
Of course, not all Jews in 
Metro Detroit are voting for 
Jewish candidates — not even 
the most prominent ones in 
the Democratic Party. 
“For me, my Judaism is 

about tzedek, tzedek tirdorf: 
‘
Justice, justice shall you pur-
sue,
’
” says Rep. Andy Levin, 
a Democrat who’
s endorsed 
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth 
Warren for president. “I’
m 
looking for the candidate who 
will work the hardest, and the 
most effectively, to create a 
more just world and repair this 
fractured world of ours.
”
Other local Democratic 
Jewish officeholders, like Rep. 
Elissa Slotkin, who represents 
Michigan’
s 8th congressio-
nal district, and Michigan 
Attorney General Dana Nessel, 
have not endorsed a presiden-
tial candidate.
The question of Bernie or 
Bloomberg is a pressing one 
for Jewish Democrats in Metro 
Detroit. Of those interviewed, 
there are just as many reasons 
to disqualify one candidate as 
there are to support the other.
At the “Jews for Bloomberg” 
event, Sandi Reitelman still sits 
on the fence.
“What I’
m really struggling 
with is to figure out how to 
meld my feeling that I don’
t 
care who it is. I want to try 
to apply some principle,
” she 
explains. While leaning toward 
Bloomberg, she’
s expressed 
some lingering concerns about 
his debate performances and 
is open to some of Sanders’
 
ideas. “The dirty word ‘
social-
ism’
 is totally stupid. We are a 
socialist democracy. We have 
health care, we have education, 
we have services.
”
Reitelman also says former 
Vice President Joe Biden and 
former South Bend, Indiana, 
Mayor Pete Buttigieg (now out 
of the race) have values she’
s 
attracted to, but she has doubts 
about all the candidates. 
“It’
s all very confusing. I 
don’
t know the answer.” 

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