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July 9, 2004/Tamuz 20 5764, Vol. 56, No.42
Observers laud Edwards choice
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
U.S. Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) doesn't need to represent a state with a lot of Jews to understand the needs of the Jewish community, supporters say.
"In a lot of ways, John Edwards transcends North Carolina," said Lonnie Kaplan, a former president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, who backed Edwards when he sought the Democratic nomination for president earlier this year.
U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who defeated Edwards to become the presumptive Democratic nominee for president earlier this year, named the trial lawyer-turned-legislator as his running mate July 6.
Speaking to supporters in Pittsburgh, Kerry described Edwards as a "man whose life has prepared him for leadership and whose character brings him to exercise it."
The much-anticipated announcement didn't trigger the same elation among Jews that Sen. Joseph Lieberman's selection did four years ago when the Connecticut Democrat became the first Jewish name on a national ticket.
But there is seemingly solid support among Jewish Democrats hoping that Edwards' selection will help bolster Kerry's bid to unseat President Bush.
The National Jewish Democratic Council called Edwards "an outstanding friend of the American Jewish community and a powerful supporter" of the positions "held by the vast majority of American Jews."
The Jewish community has had a lot less contact with Edwards than with Lieberman or other candidates who came to national campaigns with decades of Washington experience.
But supporters and Jewish analysts say Edwards has warm ties with Jews in his state.
Edwards was a highly successful trial lawyer in North Carolina seven years ago when he sought a seat in the U.S. Senate, largely financing his own campaign. That meant Edwards didn't spend as much time as other aspiring lawmakers courting support and dollars in the Jewish community, both in and out of his state, North Carolina, Jewish activists said.
Edwards nonetheless has earned Jews' respect. He has a solid voting record on Israel, pro-Israel lobbyists say, and he emphasizes issues that resonate with many Jewish voters: health, education and poverty.
Edwards visited Israel with colleagues from the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2001 and was there when a suicide bomber attacked a Sbarro restaurant in downtown Jerusalem.
"I think the trip left on him an understanding," said Randall Kaplan, a Greensboro businessman who is a board member for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. "He really gets the strategic issues, the existential issues."
In a statement to JTA during his presidential bid, Edwards said he would, as president, increase U.S. engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the appointment of a senior envoy to the region.
He said he supports a two-state solution, with the Jewish State of Israel and "a legitimate, democratic and territorially viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace."
And he signaled support for Israel's anti-terrorism tactics, including the security barrier Israel is erecting in the West Bank.
"As long as the Palestinian leadership fails to end terror, Israel has a right to take measures to defend itself," Edwards said. "Such defensive measures are not the cause of terrorism - they are the response to terrorism."
As part of the rollout of Edwards as a candidate for vice president, Kerry's campaign took note of his foreign policy experience, including meetings he has had with Middle East leaders like Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon; former Prime Minister Shimon Peres; Ephraim Halevy, who heads the Mossad intelligence service; Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and Jordanian King Abdullah II.
On the domestic front, Edwards said in his statement to JTA that he supports faith-based charities delivering social services "in a manner consistent with the First Amendment," but did not specify whether he supports federal funding for such charities.
In contrast to the Bush administration's plan that allows religious charities to receive federal funds while allowing the hiring of individuals of a specific religion, Edwards said the charities should follow anti-discrimination standards.
He is a former co-sponsor of the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, legislation that has languished in Congress for years and would give employees the right to seek accommodations for their religious practices. While Edwards has not put his name to the legislation this year, Jewish organizational officials say he is expected to support the legislation if it moves forward for a vote.
In a stump speech, Edwards said the color of one's skin or any other circumstances of birth "should never control your destiny."
"I'll never forget when I was in the sixth grade - I was living in Georgia at the time - my sixth grade teacher walked into the classroom at the end of the day and said he wouldn't be teaching next year because they were about to integrate the schools, and he wouldn't teach in an integrated school," Edwards told high school students attending a forum at the Nashua Chamber of Commerce in New Hampshire. "He unfortunately didn't use the language that I just used."
Edwards was apolitical until the 1996 death of his eldest son, Wade, who was killed at age 16 in a car accident, changed Edwards' life.
"When John walked out of the church for Wade's funeral, all he said was, 'Something good has got to come from this,'" said Fred Baron, who was the co-finance chairman of Edwards' presidential campaign and a former president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. "You saw a transformation."
Edwards withdrew completely for six months, friends said, and walked away from his law practice.
"He decided at that point that he wanted to do something other than the strict practice of law," said Ken Broun, a former dean of UNC's law school. He wanted a larger mission and he chose to challenge incumbent Sen. Lauch Faircloth, a Republican.
Edwards, a Methodist, has a good grasp on the religious politics of his state, friends say.
"Up until the last 15 years, this was a fairly lonely place for Jews and Catholics," Broun said. "I think he understands that."
In a statement Edwards wrote for JTA, he said, "Faith is enormously important to me personally and to tens of millions of Americans."
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