As more and more experts speculate that Jewish Democrats in Pennsylvania and other swing states could decide the election, the opposing strategies of the two campaigns could be indicative of a rift within the liberal Jewish community.
While both campaigns talk about the threat to Jews and Judaism, Harris talks about Hitler, and Trump talks about Iran.
Answering a question about fighting antisemitism in a CNN town hall meeting in Philadelphia, Harris said, "If the president of the United States, the commander in chief, is saying to his generals in essence, 'Why can't you be more like Hitler's generals'...This is a serious, serious issue."
Harris contrasted this to her own commitment to fighting antisemitism: “As Attorney General, I actually published a hate-crime report on a regular basis, and antisemitism was amongst the highest forms of hate.”
The undecided voter asking the question, Beth Samberg, was disappointed by Harris’ answer. In an exclusive interview with the Jerusalem Post, Samberg, a lifelong Democrat, reflected: “She spoke about a report from 10 years ago, but did not address what is happening now.”
That now is an unprecedented dual assault on Judaism - a physical one in the Middle East and an ideological one in the West, which Samberg explains manifests itself in an intolerable environment on college campuses.
Democratic leaders, however, showcase the crafting of a national strategy to counter traditional antisemitism - the threat to Jews and Judaism of the 20th Century - which was led by Harris' husband, Douglas Emhoff.
Jewish voters in swing states
Republicans seek to capitalize on this apparent rift between Democratic Jewish donors in New York and Democrat Jewish voters in swing states.
Sam Markstein, the National Political Director for the Republican Jewish Coalition, told the Jerusalem Post that while Jews voted 70%-30% for Biden in 2020, data shows that in swing states, those numbers were much closer.
In Georgia it was 50-50%. Markstein expects this discrepancy to be even bigger in 2024: “Pro-Israel Jewish voters in swing states were open to voting for Biden because he had a 50-year track record, dating back to meeting Golda Meir in Israel in the 1970s. Harris does not have a similar well of built-in support.”
Samberg, still undecided, said she sees a clear pattern among her Philadelphia Jewish Democratic friends, “We all agree on the issues. What we disagree on is how we prioritize them. Jewish friends who prioritize social justice issues vote for Harris. Jewish friends who prioritize antisemitism and Israel issues vote for Trump.” This, Samberg says, is a byproduct of October 7th.
October 8 Jews vs two-state solution Jews
Indeed, the rift within liberal Democrat Jews widened over the last year. There are the so-called “October 8th Jews” who reengaged with their Jewish identity through standing firm with Israel, while there are those who infuriated Israelis by arguing that the response to October 7th should be the establishment of a Palestinian State.
“Two-state solution Jews” resurrected this 1990s template, sacred in Democratic Jewish donors circles, but rejected by Israelis and Palestinians alike, as well as by experts such as Henry Kissinger.
I once tried to challenge the sacrilegious nature of the two-state solution by explaining that the world does not begin in West Hampton and end in East Hampton. I was corrected: “In an election year, it does.” And so, the 1990s two-state solution, along with 1940s Hitler, made it to the top of Harris’ talking points.
This might be too detached for actual 2024 Democratic Jewish voters. It both cheapens the magnitude of last century’s attempt to eradicate Judaism and ignores this century’s assault on Judaism. All in the name of the “balancing act conception” between being pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian.
This is why one of the policy recommendations in my new book, The Assault on Judaism, is to disassociate the Assault on Judaism from the Palestinian issue. While they are interdependent (war crimes indictments need a war), the existential threat to Judaism originates from the West and is a proxy for an Assault on America.
For this and other reasons, it should be treated by the National Security Council and not by an antisemitism committee or report. The South African foreign minister pledged: “America is next”.
Yet, Democratic donors in New York - some of them are my friends - remain in their old conception: They refuse to use their enormous leverage to pressure Harris to sanction the International Criminal Court as it lays the ground for the arrests of Israeli soldiers and political leaders.
They defend the administration sanctioning Israeli Jews, which instills Jewish insecurity on a national level, while they continue to fund US universities, which instills Jewish insecurity on a personal level.
Actual Jewish voters, on the other hand, like Samberg, view this insecurity as intolerable.
Safety for American Jews
This prompted a new initiative led by the Tzemach David Foundation, in partnership with Israeli university presidents and other donors, to prepare Israeli academic institutions for the possibility of a massive influx of American Jewish students who seek to study in a safe and inclusive environment.
Markstein thinks this is the key issue for Jewish voters: “They ask who is keeping us safe as Jews here in America? And they ask who will be there for Israel when it needs America…Harris supported an embargo.”
While Harris was trying to retain Jewish voters in Pennsylvania by talking about Hitler, Trump was in a town hall in Georgia, scolding Biden’s preventing Israel from attacking Iran’s nuclear and oil facilities.
This was in response to a question from a young non-Jewish voter, Jack Hogan, “How do you plan to support and protect Israel and the Jewish community?” which Ayer, a small-town mayor in rural Georgia, defined as “one of the most pressing things on a global scale.”
In the early 20th Century, the Jewish masses rebelled against their adamantly anti-Zionist Jewish leadership and instead aligned themselves with the non-Jewish Americans in steadfast support for Zionism.
Are we on the eve of another populous Jewish revolt against its leadership - this time within the Democratic party? November 5th could give an indication of that.
Gol Kalev is the author of the new book The Assault on Judaism: The Existential Threat Is Coming from the West. He is chairman of the Judaism 3.0 Think Tank and author of Judaism 3.0: Judaism’s Transformation to Zionism.