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Greetings!
The smears against Senator Obama continue unabated. The New York Times has just reported on a new rumor campaign questioning Obama's religious background launched by Floyd Brown. He's the man responsible for the Willie Horton TV ad that helped torpedo Michael S. Dukakis's candidacy in 1988, a man who views the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," which slandered Senator John Kerry in 2004, as a paragon of virtue. Every day at Jews for Obama we receive new attacks on Senator Obama intended to frighten Jews with distortions and innuendo. There are many ways we can join together to fight back. We've assembled a "Rapid Response Team" which researches every major viral hate email sent our way and posts the facts on a section of our website called React! With just one click, you can forward any of our rebuttals to those who have sent you a "Schvitz Boat" chain mail about Obama.
The Obama campaign has rolled out its own Fight the Smears website, providing facts to combat a few of the biggest lies. Jews for Obama's React! page is the central online clearinghouse for the American Jewish community for combatting the many falsehoods circulating about Obama which are of special concern to American Jews (and not addressed by the Obama campaign anti-smear site).
If you receive anti-Obama scare-mail from someone, don't sweat it! Forward it to us at chief-editor@jews4barack.com and if it merits a reply, we'll assign our SWAT (Special Writing Action Tactics) team to provide a rapid yet well-researched response.
In this issue of the Jews for Obama newsletter, we bring you our knock-down replies to several of the top Schvitz-Boat hate-mails which have been circulating of late in the American Jewish community. That's playing defense. But we can also play offense.
Join the nearly 800 American Jews who have already signed our statement "We are Jewish. We Stand with Barack Obama."
Send this message to the entire American Jewish community, and help get the word out - to Florida, Pennsylvania, and every state in the union:
As American Jews, we declare our support for Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for President of the United States. We stand with Senator Obama because of his lifelong commitment to values we as Jews hold dear, our tradition of tikkun olam - the Jewish mandate to "repair the world." We support Senator Obama as a leader who has demonstrated long-standing and unwavering support for Israel.
Senator Obama has earned our respect and gratitude for his statements of moral outrage at the use of murder and terror by groups like Hamas, and for his far-sighted rejection of an Iraq war that has destabilized the Middle East and strengthened Iran.
From the earliest days of this campaign, we have watched as unsubstantiated and vicious rumors have spread through our community. Not one of the rumors has proven true. We ask those who continue to stir up baseless fears of harm to Israel to cease at once. Each of us must choose to support a candidate based on his record and plans for the future, not malicious innuendo.
Click here to read and sign the full statement and to help us distribute this and other messages throughout the American Jewish community.
Please forward this issue to your friends and family.
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Top 5 Jewish-Themed Smears of Obama with Responses
The React! section of the Jews for Obama website provides extensive and frequently updated one-click email replies to the "Schvitz Boat" smears which continue to circulate through our community. Smear-mongers hope that a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. Here are five of the top recent smears of Jewish concern to which we've provided fleet-footed responses:
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Top 5 Recent Rabbinic Statements of Support for Obama
A. Rabbi Yosef Blau, Director of Religious Guidance at Yeshiva University and President of the Religious Zionists of America:
Obama's "record on issues of Jewish interest has been excellent." His "record is totally supportive of Jewish concerns." "Barack Obama's personality, record and policy proposals reflect a candidate with whom the Jewish community should be comfortable." Read Rabbi Blau's op-ed from the Jewish Week.
Dear Colleagues,
I am writing to you because I am increasingly disturbed by what appears to be a concerted campaign to discredit Barack Obama within the American Jewish community. Whether or not you choose to support Obama's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, as rabbinic colleagues I feel a need to share with you what I have learned about the man - and it is quite different from the rumors that refuse to die in our Jewish community. Read Rabbi Karp's letter.
Senator Barack Obama came to Temple B'nai Torah this afternoon [to speak to an audience of 750 mostly-Jewish men, women and teens.] The Senator won over the vast majority of the assembled minyan. During the more than two hours he spent speaking and dialoguing, Senator Obama made it abundantly clear that he was, is, and always shall be, a staunch defender of the Jewish State.
One should know a fact: After going over the voting records of both Senator Clinton and Obama vis-a-vis issues pertaining to Israel, AIPAC -- the main Israel support lobby in the U.S. gave both a 100% rating. That's 100% of the time that both senators voted in a manner that was favorable to the Jewish State. Read Rabbi Karp's testimonial on Obama's appearance at B'nai Torah in Boca
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Only two governments on earth are in shock over the newly revealed Israeli-Syrian dialogue: the Iranian regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the Bush administration, which reportedly called Israel's overture towards Syria "a slap in the face." Such language is not unlike that doubtlessly heard in government halls in Tehran and Hezbollah's Beirut these days about their Syrian ally.
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Economists across the political spectrum question McCain's portrayal of Obama:
"The important thing is to look at overall impact on people" and on this score, "the vast majority of the population, almost the entirety of the middle class, would see more from Obama than McCain." -- John Irons of the Economic Policy Institute
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Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., an Orthodox Jew, a strong supporter of Israel told ABC News, "that is not backtracking." Senator Obama's "position has been the same for the past 16 months," Wexler said.
"He believes Jerusalem should be an undivided city and must be the capital of a Jewish state of Israel. He has also said - and it's the same position as President Bush, former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - that Jerusalem is of course a 'final status' issue," meaning it would be one of the key and final points of negotiation for a Palestinian state. "And Sen. Obama as president would not dictate final status issues. He will permit the Palestinians and Israel to negotiate, and he would respect any conclusion they reach."
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New York City Jews for Obama Organizing Party: Saturday, June 28, 8:00 P.M.
240 West 98th Street #7E (New York, NY)
House party for Jewish Obama supporters who want to work in the Jewish community to support Obama. Let's get to know each other and talk about how we can build Jewish support for Obama with Get Out the Vote activities in Pennsylvania, Florida and closer to home.
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Jews for Obama is a project of Kahal America, an independent issues advocacy 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, and not affiliated with the Obama Campaign. | |
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"A government that truly represents these Americans - that truly serves these Americans - will require a different kind of politics. We will need to understand just how we got to this place, this land of warring factions and tribal hatreds. And we'll need to remind ourselves, despite all our differences, just how much we share: common hopes, common dreams, a bond that will not break."
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Congressman Rahm Emanuel Endorses Senator Obama
Congressman Emanuel and his wife Amy are active members of a modern Orthodox congregation, Anshe Sholom, in Chicago. Amy is heavily involved with the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, where Emanuel was educated. His father was born in Jerusalem, and he volunteered on an IDF base during the 1991 Persian Gulf War before serving as a senior advisor to President Clinton at the White House from 1993 - 1998.
Emanuel was chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for the 2006 elections. After the Democratic Party regained control of the House, he was elected as the next chairman of the Democratic Caucus. He is the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House.
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Previous Editions
If you missed previous issues of the Jews for Obama e-Newsletter, you can now view them on the web
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Thinking about voting for McCain? Read this book. Cliff Schecter's hard-hitting profile explores the gap between the public record of Senator John McCain and his media image. Drawing on a range of sources and adding his unique perspective and humor, Schecter guides the reader through McCain's long history of expedient flip-flops--especially on his signature issues of national security and campaign finance reform.
Paul Hackett, Major, USMCR: Cliff Schecter provides us with some real "straight talk" about John McCain. Everyone who wants to know why John McCain won't give us healthcare but will keep us fighting endless wars and sell our personal freedoms to far-right theocrats should read this book.
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After delivering 
