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• Monday, October 6, 2008 06:20 AM

  You know, Jews are by no means monolithic in their political views

  Not even close.

  I think one comment in the article was particularly telling -- Israel as their "baby" -- largely the domain of older Jewish individuals who can remember the founding of Israel and view it as a sort of phoenix of hope arising from the ashes of the holocaust. Many of the younger, "modern Orthodox" have a similar view and have backed it up by moving there. A radical (and unfortunately often bigoted) subset of this group supports the settlers. The neocons speak to this demographic and they will likely vote for McCain, Palin or no Palin.

  Like any other group of people with a shared culture there are also significant class distinctions -- the older, very wealthy subgroup are Republicans for the same reason other wealthy ex-businesspeople are Republicans and will probably go McCain/Palin.

  This leaves a very large number of Jewish people who are younger (and in my experience are *extremely* pro-Obama) and, frankly, a significant proportion of older folks (like my in-laws) who fervently believe with all of their hearts that we all have a responsibility to care for others who cannot care for themselves, the message they heard in shul all of their lives--they would be more likely to jump off a bridge than vote for McCain/Palin. These lines are very stark in this election.

  Someone above also commented on the "education" factor -- this is a good point. It would not surprise me if older folks who were wavering were turned off by Palin's good old gal routine, my guess is that if any of my seemingly endless number of cousins had gone through 5 colleges and *still* couldn't come up with a coherent thought they would be whispered about and considered a "black sheep" --- not an obvious candidate for VP in these difficult times.

  So while I am not sure whether she is a direct negative -- she certainly is not a positive for any older Jewish voter who hadn't already committed.

  —JCT_ucb Read JCT_ucb's other letters
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