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October 15, 2004/Tishri 30 5765, Vol. 57, No. 7
Jewish votes up for grabs in Pa.
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
PHILADELPHIA - When Anne Richman traveled to New York City for her grandson's wedding this summer, his friends could not understand why she hadn't yet decided to vote for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for president.
The 82-year-old promised them she would. But her other grandson, the one who served in the Israeli army, wants her to vote to re-elect President Bush. She said he "wouldn't let up" with his assurances that Bush was best for the State of Israel.
Less than a month before the election, she's still not sure what to do.
"I've been thinking, in all my years, I've never thought about it so much," Richman said, sitting in the lobby of the Klein branch of the Jewish Com-munity Centers in Phila-delphia. "And I'm still undecid-ed."
Like many Jews in Penn-sylvania and beyond, Richman is struggling with whom to support in this pivotal presidential election.
The Keystone State is considered an important swing state, with 21 electoral votes at stake. In 2000, the state went to the Democrats.
In interviews with several dozen individuals in Phila-delphia and surrounding suburbs, many Jews, who make up 2.3 percent of the state's population, say this is the hardest, and most im-portant, choice they can remember.
Jewish voters look at President Bush and see a man who has aided Israel and guided a war on terrorism. But he also has broken down the dividing line between church and state and has not supported many of their domestic policy priorities.
For his part, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts is in line with many Jews on domestic issues, such as abortion rights. But as terrorism continues to grip the United States and Israel, some Jewish voters question whether domestic issues are really the ones that matter this time around.
Indeed, Jews here are quick to rattle off the war against terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when asked which topics are influencing their vote.
These issues will likely tip the balance for the still undecided, but they also are most important for those who have made up their minds already.
At the University of Penn-sylvania, Alexander Chester has been spending a lot of time trying to swing fellow Jewish students to Kerry's side.
Since he returned to campus last month, the 21-year-old Orthodox Jew has spent time helping to register students and, at the Hillel in particular, extolling the virtues of Kerry's Israel policy.
"They need reassurance because they just don't know enough about Kerry on Israel," he said, looking a bit disheveled as he stood in the lobby of the school's Hillel, having just returned from spending Sukkot with his family in Jerusalem.
Many of them want to vote for Kerry because of his take on domestic policies and other issues of importance to them, he said, but Israel has become a bellwether issue that Kerry has not yet passed.
But once he lays out his argument that Kerry is not only as good as Bush on Israel but better, many of them connect to the Democratic views their parents hold.
"They say, 'Thank you, I can now vote for Kerry,'" he said.
But that sentiment is not universal at the school.
Take Eli Cohen, a Brook-lynite with short cropped hair and the beginnings of a beard, dining outside in the Hillel's sukkah.
Cohen, 19, said he doesn't agree with Bush on many domestic issues, like the environment, but said those are low on his priority list. National security tops the list, and that's why he supports the Iraq war and the current commander in chief.
Oblivious to the irony, Cohen said Iraq was the "lowest hanging fruit" in the global war on terrorism, and the Bush White House was justified in dealing with a problem that would eventually have required international intervention.
Temple Beth Hillel Beth El, a local synagogue in the heavily contested Montgomery County suburbs of Phila-delphia, last week hosted supporters of both candidates in an often combative dis-cussion of the issues.
Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, himself a Democrat, told attendees to support Bush for his pro-Israel and anti-terror stances, but to choose Democratic congres-sional candidates if they cared about domestic issues.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), no match for the passionate Koch, questioned Bush's support of Israel because of his backing of the "road map" plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
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