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Nov, 21, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Money matters?

Caroline B. Glick: Civilization walks the plank

Nov, 20, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bronfman's blindness

The Kosher Gourmet By Linda Gassenheimer: Portobellos add a hearty flavor to pasta with pesto

Nov, 19, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Spread the wealth? Jewish tradition and income equality

Elliot B. Gertel: 'Mad Men': Tackling prejudices or reinforcing them?

Nov, 18, 2008

Dr. Debby Schwarz Hirschhorn: The End of the Age of Reason

Jonathan Tobin: Does Barack + Bibi = Disaster?

Nov, 17, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The End of the Age of Reason

Diana West: Gulling Americans into making terror legit?

Nov, 14, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: The Power of Spiritual Inertia

Caroline B. Glick: The perils ahead

Nov, 13, 2008

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: How Bush and Obama together could change the Middle East dynamic

The Kosher Gourmet by JeanMarie Brownson: Sweet and savory, crispy and meltingly tender bestilla

Nov, 12, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Tyrannical Co-Workers

Michael Doyle: High Court to consider today donated monuments that may have religious messages in public parks

Nov, 11, 2008

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Will Obama stop government officials considering institutionalizing financial jihad?

Jonathan Tobin: They Will Decide Their Own Fate

Nov, 10, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: $8 billion, modern-day Tower of Babel being built?

Barry Rubin: A letter to the president-elect from a Middle East realist

Nov, 7, 2008

Rabbi Francis Nataf: Of Children and Immortality

Caroline B. Glick: Livni's Obama strategy

Nov, 6, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: How I tricked a classroom of apathetic students into grasping the fallacy of moral relativism

The Kosher Gourmet By Gina Kim: Tips for making the perfect soup --- includes recipes

Nov, 5, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Destitute Debtors

Bruce Weinstein: 'Religulos': Bad title,even worse movie

Nov, 4, 2008

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Treasury Dept. submits to Shariah law

Frida Ghitis: A surprise for Obama in the Middle East

Nov, 3, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Who says Jews are Smart?

Jonathan Tobin: Was He Wrong About Everything?

Oct. 31, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Our Immutable Noble Essence

Caroline B. Glick: Running against Bush

Oct. 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: The End of the Special Relationship?

Steve Lipman: 'Kid Kosher' Gets A Title Shot

Oct. 29, 2008

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: GET US THE TAPE THE L.A. TIMES REFUSES TO RELEASE, AND WE'LL GIVE YOU CASH!

Dr. Ari Korenblit: Making The Write Choice for President

Oct. 28, 2008

Mona Charen: Denial runs through American Jewry

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Sell-off to capitalism or sell-out to Islam?

Oct. 27, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Are tax deductions for charitable donations moral?

Jonathan Mark: The Mystery Of The Arab-American Vote

Oct. 24, 2008

'Why aren't all religious people vegetarians?': Response by Miriam Kosman

Caroline B. Glick: Testing Obama's mettle

Oct. 23, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama Would Fail Security Clearance

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A fast chicken dish with an Asian accent

Oct. 20, 2008

Gary Rosenblatt: Still One Torah

Jonathan Tobin: Government 'Gifts' Are Not Free

Oct. 17, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Sukkos and the Great Meltdown

Caroline B. Glick: The disappearance of law

Oct. 16, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Copying DVDs: RIP OR RIPOFF?

Cal Thomas: Blaming the Jews (again)

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review July 14, 2006 / 18 Tamuz 5766

Obama revives Dems' old-time religion

By Clarence Page


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Sen. Barack Obama's call for Democrats to close the religion gap with Republicans shows a keen grasp of the obvious. The tougher question is how this gap is to be closed.


As Obama noted in his much-talked-about speech at the Call to Renewal's "Building a Covenant for a New America" conference of religious liberals on June 28 in Washington, D.C., the biggest gap in party affiliation among white Americans today is "between those who attend church regularly and those who don't."


The speech, which Obama has posted on his Website, was well received but also widely misinterpreted. Some members of the Democratic Party's progressive wing worry that Obama is going to lead moderates to sell off pieces of the party's soul. Quite the contrary, it sounds more like an appeal to help the party rediscover its soul and improve its delivery of its message.


The right-wing voices like Pat Robertson, the Rev. Jerry Falwell or Obama's former Republican opponent Alan Keyes will continue to hold sway, Obama said, "If we don't reach out to evangelical Christians and other religious Americans and tell them what we stand for."


Conservatives openly ridicule the prospect of evangelicals returning to the Democratic Party they used to support. But, in private, it probably worries them as much as Democrats are haunted by the prospect of black voters returning to the party of Abe Lincoln.


Evangelicals have become important to the base of the Republican Party, as blacks have been for the Democrats, yet both groups are available to be wooed. Black voters, particularly black evangelicals, helped give Bush a winning edge in Ohio and some other states in 2004, spurred in part by concerns over gay marriage, which opponents have portrayed falsely, in my view, as a threat to conventional marriage.


In a similar over-the-top distortion, Obama's opponent, Alan Keyes, declared during their 2004 Senate campaign that, "Jesus Christ would not vote for Barack Obama." Obama's refusal to respond made sense under the old unwritten political rule: Never interrupt your adversary when he is 40 points behind you in the polls.


But Obama now says he wishes he had spoken up anyway, "Because, … when we discuss religion only in the negative sense of where or how it should not be practiced, rather than in the positive sense of what it tells us about our obligations towards one another…, others will fill the vacuum, those with the most insular views of faith, or those who cynically use religion to justify partisan ends."


At the Columbus, Ohio, convention of ACORN, the nation's largest grassroots community group coalition, the Rev. Al Sharpton called on progressives Monday to put bread-and-butter issues like a minimum wage increase on ballots to counter the "bedroom issues" like abortion and gay marriage. That's fine as a strategic move. It's always better to fight on you home turf issues than on someone else's and Democrats have high credibility on wage issues.


But, Obama says Democrats need to address the bedroom concerns, too, and he's not alone. The conference at which he spoke is part of a national conversation many liberals and progressives have been holding to bridge the religion gap. It's about time, but Democrats should avoid appearing to be too desperate. They do not need to start waving Bibles with the desperate choreography of their 1988 convention delegates waving American flags to close their Old Glory gap.


Instead, they need to do what the conservative movement did as it rebounded from Sen. Barry Goldwater's colossal loss in 1964 to California Gov. Ronald Reagan's victory in 1980; They need to frame their issues in ways that speak not only to the bread-and-butter concerns of ordinary voters, but also to their moral and spiritual concerns about the direction in which the country is going.


There always has been a moral component to politics. No one would have said that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., did not have a moral component. It has only been in the past three decades or so that liberal secularism and concern for religious tolerance has been widely misperceived as anti-religious.


Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter's successful presidential run in 1976 came partly because he spoke with the heartfelt faith conviction of a Sunday school teacher from Plains, Ga. That's the sort of conviction with which Obama spoke in the 2004 Democratic Convention speech that still has America buzzing about his presidential prospects.


After years of polarized politics, the public is hungering for voices that can bring the nation together even in matters as divisive as faith and politics. Democrats can do it, if they can bring themselves together first.

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