Russian Jews favor Bush
WALTER RUBY
The Jewish Week
NEW YORK - While American-born Jews and Russian-speaking Jews in New York have been building stronger intercommunal ties in recent years, they remain far apart when it comes to presidential politics.
A recent American Jewish Committee poll showed American Jews favoring Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry over President Bush by a wide margin, 69 percent to 24 percent.
But in a separate survey of Russian Jews in New York City, the AJCommittee found that 54 percent of Jews from the former Soviet Union would vote for Bush and 14 percent for Kerry, with 25 percent undecided.
In the Valley, the Russian Jewish community is booming and largely supports Bush, said two rabbis of the Buchori Jewish Community synagogue.
"(Bush) seems to identify with the Jewish people and he's interested in their issues, he's not against religion," said Rabbi Baruch Cohen, chief Buchori rabbi, in a statement translated by Rabbi Zvi Holland of the Phoenix Community Kollel.
"We speak about how no matter what, God always helps them," added Rabbi David Fleshtaiev, another Buchori community rabbi in the Valley, as translated by Holland.
Holland added that Cohen and Fleshtaiev agreed their community was leaning more toward Bush in the upcoming general election.
"The Buchori community is a community of survivors and they are not terribly concerned about the outcome of the election because they know they're going to continue to survive," he said.
"They've been through things a lot worse than whether a Democrat or Republican president is elected."
JTA staff writer Rachel Pomerance and Jewish News Staff Writer Michael Miklofsky contributed to this report.
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