Jewish Democrats call Trump top ‘threat’

Video asserts president bears responsibility for rise in anti-Semitism

A national Democratic organization is launching a multipronged effort to convince Jewish voters in Florida and other key states that President Donald Trump is a serious threat to American Jews, a critical voting bloc in the 2020 election.

The effort was launched Tuesday with a video that culminates with the assertion that Trump bears responsibility for a rise in violent anti-Semitism in the U.S. — and that “the biggest threat to the security of American Jews today is, incredibly, the president of the United States.”

The new video, from the Jewish Democratic Council of America, is arresting. It begins with news video of white nationalists marching in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 chanting “Jews will not replace us,” and then shows video of the news conference at which Trump declared there were “very fine people on both sides.”

Mixed in with dramatic music and a narrator speaking in a somber tone, the ad accused Trump of emboldening “the far right by speaking of immigrant invaders and infestation,” and

showing that similar language was used by the white nationalist who carried out the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, where 11 people were killed and six wounded.

That’s followed by Trump’s assertion that any Jewish people who vote for Democrats show “a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”

Ron Klein, a former Democratic member of Congress from Broward and Palm Beach counties, is chairman of organization that produced the new ad. He said it would be placed on social media sites. He declined to say how much the Jewish Democratic Council was spending on the effort.

Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, called the Democrats’ video “absurd.”

“The most pro-Israel president in 50 years, with Jewish grandkids, who has made us more secure and prosperous is only a threat to Democrats who want to pursue a pro-Palestinian agenda,” Brooks said by email.

Republican ad

Earlier this month, the Republican Jewish Coalition launched its first ad of the 2020 campaign, targeting Jewish voters with the assertion that Democrats have turned their backs on Israel.

The ad, called “Shanda,” for the Yiddish term for shame or a shameful act, starts with a dark picture of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“Leading Democrats have completely turned their back on Israel. Democratic leaders cozy up to fringe groups who attack Israel. Front-running Democrats are campaigning on cutting critical aid to the world’s only Jewish state,” the narrator proclaims.

And, it warns: “The radical left has taken over the Democratic Party. And now they’re moving to undo decades of bipartisan support for America’s crucial ally.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition said it was spending $50,000 to place the ad on Facebook, YouTube and other sites.

Key constituency

The Democratic effort — and a similarly targeted effort from the Republicans — is aimed at Jewish voters in the 2020 election, still almost a year away.

Jews make up a relatively small share of the population, at an estimated 2% nationwide, but they are an important voting bloc — especially in Florida, where the Jewish population is about 3%.

While Jewish voters aren’t as large a constituency as black or Hispanic voters, researchers say they are overwhelmingly Democratic and vote at higher rates than the overall electorate.

Florida, which awards 29 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency, is the largest of the swing states that could go either way in 2020 and whose outcome will determine which party wins the presidency. None of the other 2020 swing states has a Jewish population as sizable and politically active as Florida.

Every four years

Jewish voters have a generations-long allegiance to the Democratic Party. But every four years Republicans launch efforts to court Jewish voters in Florida.

When President Barack Obama was running for reelection, the Republican Jewish Coalition had a Florida billboard campaign that proclaimed, “Obama … Oy Vey!!”

In 2016, the Trump campaign dispatched Ivanka Trump, the candidate’s oldest daughter and a convert to Judaism, to appear on her father’s behalf at a synagogue in Surfside.

Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign deployed former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman to a synagogue at Century Village west of Boca Raton and former President Bill Clinton to a synagogue at Century Village in Pembroke Pines.

Still, the result turns out the same every four years: around 7 in 10 Jewish voters go for the Democratic presidential nominee.

Republicans aren’t actually trying to win a majority of Jewish voters. But in Florida, where statewide elections are often decided by 1% of the vote or less, Republicans can have a major effect by holding down the totals for the Democratic candidate.

Issues

Since becoming president, Trump has been an outspoken supporter of policies sought by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018. On Monday, the

Trump administration reversed decades of U.S. policy and announced that the U.S. no longer considers Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank to be a violation of international law.

On Dec. 7, he’s scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a gathering of the IsraeliAmerican Council at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood. A major funder of the council is casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who is also a major donor to Republican causes and benefactor of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Support for Israel is the central theme of the Republican Jewish Coalition ad.

Klein said Jewish voters can’t be swayed solely on a candidate’s views on Israel. Rather, he argued that Jewish voters are like everyone else, with a broad range of concerns such as health care, women’s rights, separation of church and state, and gun reform.

The Jewish Democratic Council cited a public opinion poll conducted in May for the Jewish Electorate Institute, which found that domestic issues are more important to Jewish voters than issues related to Israel.

Strategy

Klein said the Jewish Democratic Council of America was active at mobilizing voters in the 2018 midterm election, concentrating on congressional districts where “there was a large enough critical mass of voters to make a difference in a close election.”

He said efforts would continue in key House and Senate races next year along with swing presidential states.

Besides Florida, that includes Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Brooks said in a statement that the “Shanda” ad was “the first salvo” in what he promised would be a multimillion-dollar effort to help Trump and Republican congressional candidates in 2020.

On Thursday, the organization will have its first event for the South Florida Jewish community. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will appear at a synagogue in Plantation to deliver an overview of the importance of the election to the Jewish community. Gingrich, whose wife, Callista, was appointed U.S. ambassador to the Vatican by Trump, is an outspoken supporter of the president.