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02/27/2008
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Jews Now Drawn Deeper Into Racial Politics

Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign dismisses as nonsense the idea now circulating in e-mails that the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would have prominent places in his administration. Getty Images

by James D. Besser
Washington Correspondent

With Sen. Barack Obama surging in his drive for the Democratic presidential nomination, a Jewish community that remains liberal on civil rights issues — but is also affected by black anti-Semitism, concerns about Israel and what one analyst called “latent racism” — is getting drawn deeper into bitter racial politics.

Consider:

*  Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s strong endorsement of Obama over the weekend prompted a new round of e-mails to and often from Jews around the country, warning that an Obama victory would enhance the power and influence of the outspoken anti-Semite.

* A cartoon in the Israeli newspaper Maariv showed Obama painting the White House black.

* Pro-Israel activists have received e-mails warning that if Obama is elected, the Revs. Jesse Jackson

* Hillary Clinton campaign officials continue to raise the specter of Jesse Jackson and connect him to Obama, and this week there were reports that her campaign was responsible for sending out a photo of Obama in African tribal garb — a tactic many see as playing to the race issue.

And racial politics, observers say, is likely to take another exponential jump if Obama wins the right to square off against Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, in November.

“There is good reason to expect the race card will be played — in the Jewish community and in the overall electorate,” said American University presidential historian Allan Lichtman. “Given what the Republicans did to John Kerry on his swift-boat activities, it would be shocking if they held their hand on the race issue.”

Race will be a factor with some Jewish voters, others say — but that it will be masked by other issues, such as concern about Israel.

“The way it will play out is that some will use Israel as a cover for race,” said M.J. Rosenberg, a longtime Jewish activist and director of the Israel Policy Center’s Washington office. “You’re not allowed to say you’re not voting for someone because he is an African American, but you can say you don’t trust him on Israel. The race issue will obviously be big, but it will be camouflaged by other issues.”

Analysts across the spectrum agree that a strong majority of Jews will likely vote for Obama if he is the nominee — but his totals could be less than recent Democratic presidential candidates. And one big reason, some say, will be race and the way the race card is played by political opponents.

But others charge that talk about race and the Jewish vote today is mostly a tactic by Democrats worried that Republican McCain will score better than recent GOP nominees with Jewish voters because of his positions on Israel, terrorism and national security.

“It is an effort by some Jewish Democrats to delegitimize Jewish support for McCain and opposition to Obama,” said Johns Hopkins University political scientist Benjamin Ginsberg.

“It’s a tactic, saying that any Jew who is dubious about Obama is a racist, when every study shows Jews are among the least racist Americans.”

Still, even some Jewish conservatives worry that race is one reason Obama can seem to do nothing right with the Jewish community, despite a very active outreach effort.

“For a community that’s supposed to be so politically sophisticated, we’re acting like amateurs,” said a longtime Jewish leader who tends to support Republicans. “Here is someone who is going to tremendous lengths to reach out to us, whose positions are all very supportive of our concerns, and we keep finding reasons to doubt him.”

This activist said that “if I was running his campaign, at some point I think I’d say, to heck with the Jewish vote. What’s disturbing me greatly is that I believe he is not an anti-Semite — but it’s almost as if we are trying to turn him into one.”

And race is one factor in that communal reaction, this source said.

Jack Levin, a Chicago lawyer and longtime Obama confidante, said he thinks attempts to play the race card with Jewish voters “won’t work very well. But it’s unfortunate when anybody tries to divide the Jewish community. Barack is going to win the presidency; when he wins, we would like him to have warm feelings toward the Jewish community. We don’t want for him to remember there were lies and rampant distortions about him circulating in the Jewish community.”

The race issue will be particularly awkward for Obama in the Jewish community because his opponents will demand that he publicly and loudly repudiate controversial figures such as Jackson and Sharpton who remain influential leaders in their community.

“It’s not fair to do that,” said former New York Mayor Ed Koch, who is supporting Hillary Clinton. “You can’t say, here is a list of 10 people, now denounce them all; that’s ridiculous. Instead, you want to get an overall feeling for his campaign, an understanding through his public statements that he is responding to Jewish concerns.”

Still, Revs. Sharpton and Jackson shadow Obama’s Jewish campaign, in part because political opponents continue to try to connect the dots. Rev. Jackson is still viewed with suspicion by Jews because of his infamous “Hymietown” remark and others about Jews, while Rev. Sharpton is seen by many Jewish leaders as having played a divisive role  during sensitive flashpoints between the black and Jewish communities.

This week’s unwelcome endorsement by Farrakhan adds to the explosiveness.

Obama has repeatedly repudiated Farrakhan’s views on Jews and Israel, and in Tuesday’s debate in Ohio — a state where Obama could deal Clinton a knockout punch and where Jewish voters will play a significant role — he said he will both “reject and denounce” Farrakhan’s endorsement, in response to hard-edged prodding by Clinton.

But the mere fact the Nation of Islam leader offered it will be a kind of scarlet letter for his campaign with some Jewish voters and crude ammunition for independent Republican groups.

Although few express it directly, the race issue has never been far from the surface — among Jewish voters and in the electorate at large. Many liberal Jews — still the largest segment of the Jewish public – are thrilled at the prospect of the first serious African-American presidential candidate, said several leading Jewish politicos.

Generational Divide On Race

There is a huge generational divide in the Jewish community, as there is in the public at large.

Younger Jews, who are the strongest backers of Obama, are mostly “oblivious” to the race issue, or regard Obama’s race as a plus, said a leading Jewish Democratic operative; resistance to Obama because of his race may be “more of an issue for some older Jewish voters.”

For those older Jews, the Obama candidacy may raise a disturbing array of red flags, including black anti-Semitism, the hostility of some African-American leaders to the pro-Israel cause and connections to outright anti-Semites like Farrakhan.

Kean University political scientist Gilbert Kahn said a “latent racism” in the Jewish community will be a significant factor in shaping the Jewish vote in November if Obama is the Democratic nominee — a racism shaped by insecurity.

“It’s a subtle thing, but I think subconsciously, some people will be saying: I want to protect my economic position in this society, and he’ll care more about the economic needs of his people,”  he said

Some Jewish Democrats say the Republicans, recognizing that wild card in the Jewish vote, will look for ways to play the race card with Jewish voters.

But Lichtman said they will have to be extraordinarily careful to avoid charges of racism.

“It won’t come directly from the Republican Party, but you will see scurrilous attacks from independent organizations that will play that race card,” said the presidential historian.

Such groups won’t be overt about Obama’s race, but they will try to connect his race, black anti-Semitism and concerns about Israel, he said.

In doing that, they may follow the model of Obama’s chief Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Several times, Clinton advisers and surrogates — former President Bill Clinton in South Carolina, senior campaign adviser Harold Ickes only this week — have tried to connect Obama to Jesse Jackson, a red flag for many white Americans — and a redder one for many Jews.

The big unknown is how much of a factor race will be for Jewish voters in November, if Obama is the nominee.

“I can’t say latent racism won’t be a factor, but I’m unimpressed by the magnitude,” said University of Florida political scientist Ken Wald. “Traditionally African-American candidates with the right political values have done very well with Jewish voters.”
And any negative racial impact among older Jewish voters could be “offset by the enthusiasm among the young,” he said.

Wald agreed that Obama’s words will be parsed more carefully than those of McCain or Clinton — but that his relative unknown status, not race, is the reason.

And some Jewish leaders insist it will not be a factor at all.

“Some people are just behind the times,” said Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding. “If anything, black-Jewish relations are closer to the heyday of the civil rights struggle in the 1960s than at any other time since. We have to wake up and acknowledge that black- Jewish relations are not those of Crown Heights, 1991.”

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